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Internet Predators, Privacy, Porn: Are Parents Concerned?

A report released by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health shows that parents across the United States have a wide range of concerns about the safety of their children’s lives online.

Eighty-one percent of parents report their children, aged 9 to 17, use the Internet and access Web sites without adult supervision. Forty-six percent of parents report children aged 9 to 17 who access the Internet by themselves have their own social networking profiles on sites like Facebook, MySpace and BlackPlanet. Among children aged 13 to 17 who access the Internet, 66% have their own profiles.

Of parents with kids online, nearly two thirds are concerned (32% very concerned) about online sexual predators. Similarly, about two thirds of parents are concerned about loss of privacy (22% very concerned) and about one half (21% are very concerned) about their children viewing pornographic material.

In contrast, smaller proportions of parents are concerned about their online kids playing games (35%), being the victims of cyber bullying (31%), or gambling (17%).

“Parents are quite aware of some online safety risks but seem less aware about others,” says Matthew Davis, MD, MAPP, director of the poll. “We know from other studies that about one in seven children between the ages of 10 and 17 have received sexual solicitation over the Internet and about one in three children have been exposed to sexually explicit material. So it’s not a surprise that most parents whose kids are online unsupervised are concerned about issues related to sexual predators and pornography. On the other hand, cyber bullying is a very worrisome problem for kids, yet the majority of parents say they are not concerned about it.”

Parents of girls who go online have different concerns than parents of boys who go online. For girls, parents’ leading Internet concern is sexual predators. For boys, parents’ leading Internet concern is viewing pornographic material.

Although lesser concerns, online bullying is much more likely to be a concern for parents of girls (38%) than for parents of boys (24%), and playing online games is more a concern for parents of boys (42%) than for parents of girls (28%).

When comparing parents concerns by race/ethnicity, the report shows black parents are generally more concerned about the safety of their children online than Hispanic or white parents.

The poll also asked parents what actions they do take, if any, to safeguard their children online:

- 65% of parents report disabling pop-ups
- 62% monitor social networking sites
- 61% check Web history
- 49% block Web sites they don’t want their children to use
- 32% use child-safe software

Sixty-eight percent of parents report taking 1 to 4 of the above actions, while 19% take all 5 of the actions listed. However, 13% of parents whose children access the Internet report not taking any of these actions to protect or monitor that use.

— Source: University of Michigan Health System