<p>The "Norton online family report" released last week has found that five out of six parents do not know that children are having bad experiences online such as cyber bullying, personal insults and exposure to pornography. <br /><br />"We put a series of statements to the children interviewed for the report (who were between the age of 8-17) and 77 per cent of them have admitted to have had 'bad experiences' online," said Effendy Ibrahim, online family expert at Norton. "A majority of them who have admitted to have had bad experiences online went on to describe their top emotions as anger, upset, fear and a sense of violation. The possible good news is that they turn to their parents for help when such things happen to them online," he added. <br /><br />The study - which cover 2,800 children and 7,000 parents in 14 countries worldwide, including India - has also found that parents have control over when their children are online and for how long, but children, despite following the rules, know that they know much more than their parents about the 'bad things' online. <br /><br />On the contrary, it has found that parents in the US have much better understanding of the internet and what their children do online. <br /><br />"We wanted to basically focus on children because they acquire sophistication faster in operating the internet and they can do it through more devices than we did has adults," Effendy pointed out. <br /><br />McAfee, another internet security firm, has also released a report last week in which it had said that teenagers are more inclined to share personal details online with strangers. About 900 of them between the age of 13 and 17, which included 360 in the age group of 16-17, primarily in the US, has shown roughly half of them share personal details with strangers. <br /><br />It also shows more than half of early teens have updated their social networking status to reveal their physical locations. Though the India specific statistics are not available, the study comes as further example of vulnerabilities children face online, which, experts say are becoming largely universal. Reacting to the reports, Bangalore-based NGO Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), who research on internet and its impact on families, said cyber bullying has been widely pointed at as one of the common phenomena felt by children. <br /><br />"We have been following other reports by those like the Berkman Centre, which has indeed shown prevalence of cyber bullying largely from their peer groups, though the likelihood of adult sexul predators approaching them online may be exaggerated," said Sunil Abraham, Director, CIS. <br />DH News Service</p>
<p>The "Norton online family report" released last week has found that five out of six parents do not know that children are having bad experiences online such as cyber bullying, personal insults and exposure to pornography. <br /><br />"We put a series of statements to the children interviewed for the report (who were between the age of 8-17) and 77 per cent of them have admitted to have had 'bad experiences' online," said Effendy Ibrahim, online family expert at Norton. "A majority of them who have admitted to have had bad experiences online went on to describe their top emotions as anger, upset, fear and a sense of violation. The possible good news is that they turn to their parents for help when such things happen to them online," he added. <br /><br />The study - which cover 2,800 children and 7,000 parents in 14 countries worldwide, including India - has also found that parents have control over when their children are online and for how long, but children, despite following the rules, know that they know much more than their parents about the 'bad things' online. <br /><br />On the contrary, it has found that parents in the US have much better understanding of the internet and what their children do online. <br /><br />"We wanted to basically focus on children because they acquire sophistication faster in operating the internet and they can do it through more devices than we did has adults," Effendy pointed out. <br /><br />McAfee, another internet security firm, has also released a report last week in which it had said that teenagers are more inclined to share personal details online with strangers. About 900 of them between the age of 13 and 17, which included 360 in the age group of 16-17, primarily in the US, has shown roughly half of them share personal details with strangers. <br /><br />It also shows more than half of early teens have updated their social networking status to reveal their physical locations. Though the India specific statistics are not available, the study comes as further example of vulnerabilities children face online, which, experts say are becoming largely universal. Reacting to the reports, Bangalore-based NGO Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), who research on internet and its impact on families, said cyber bullying has been widely pointed at as one of the common phenomena felt by children. <br /><br />"We have been following other reports by those like the Berkman Centre, which has indeed shown prevalence of cyber bullying largely from their peer groups, though the likelihood of adult sexul predators approaching them online may be exaggerated," said Sunil Abraham, Director, CIS. <br />DH News Service</p>