Kids Exposed to Sexual Content

Harris Interactive conducted a new survey, codename Parenting Moves Online: Parents' Internet Actions and Attitudes, 2007, which revealed that 85 percent of the parents talked with their kids about the web's influence while 93 percent of the respondents already took attitude to improve their security on the Internet. But what's more interesting is that a lot of 'cyberkids' are exposed to dangerous content such as sexual and violent material - 24 percent or advertising - 52 percent.

According to the report, the parents believe the Internet is very useful for their children as 81 percent of them said the web improved the kids' skills. 74 percent of the parents sustained the Internet helped the under-18 users learn new things about cultures while 65 percent of the parents think the web makes their kids express themselves more creatively.

"Many observers have expressed the fear that the Internet is a chaotic environment in which children are left to behave in unsupervised fashion. To the contrary, this research shows that today's parents themselves are online, and their parenting has moved online as well," said Helen Soulé, Ph.D., executive director of Cable in the Classroom.

But the Internet is not only a good thing. The report sustains that 20 percent of the kids who browse the web are distracted from the school or from their lessons while 26 percent of them refuse to go out and play because they want to spend more time online.

"The poll confirms that parents continue to have issues with their kids' Web use, but those issues aren't scaring them away from letting their kids go online," said Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer. "The results suggest that most parents balance the Web's dangers and benefits - they talk to their kids about the issues they encounter, and work to make the Web a helpful tool."