Internet Predators, Privacy, Porn: Are Parents Concerned?

When your daughter goes online, how likely is it she’s being stalked by a stranger or bullied by a classmate? When your son surfs the Web, what are the chances he’s viewing pornography or gambling?

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

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

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

“Parents are quite aware of some online safety risks but seem less aware about others,” says Matthew Davis, M.D., 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 percent) than for parents of boys (24 percent), and playing online games is more a concern for parents of boys (42 percent) than for parents of girls (28 percent).

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.

“Black parents are more concerned than other parents about all of the risks we measured,” says Davis, who is also associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine in the U-M Medical School and associate professor of public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. “For online gambling, black parents have about twice the level of concern as other parents.”