40% of Parents Fear Their Kids Visit Bad Sites

According to a survey conducted by the Cabinet Office, around 40% of parents are concerned about their children visit the sites, which contain pornographic and violent material.

The survey also reveals that a large number of parents did not have any idea about the parental filters software which gives the parents the upper hand in deciding which site their children should visit.

The survey was carried out in March 2007, to analyze the people's awareness about youth and the information society, with 5,000 people aged 10-29 and on 2,000 parents with children aged 10-17. However, only 49.3% and 57.3% of the two groups, respectively, gave genuine answers.

On being asked as to what aspect of the Internet worry the parents most, almost 39.4% responded by saying that they had fears regarding the harmful sites which their children visit, 36.5% said they were worried about their children's involvement in cyber-crimes like scam, and finally around 30.7% said that they were worried about the harmful health consequences like poor eyesight.

Further, only 23.7% of parents were found to be aware of parental filters, but only 7.3% of them used it.

As per the news reported by Yomiuri on July 8, 2007, a Cabinet Office spokesman said that there have been many examples of the existence of harmful sites, but not enough security measures have been taken to tackle the problem. He added that it is essential to highlight the measures to keep children away from accessing such sites.

According to the news by EnglishPeople on July 7, 2007, Kyodo news said that a group of government officials would hold a meeting (on Tuesday, 3 July) to suggest some actions against children using such sites. Some strict rules for controlling the use of such websites would be introduced by the end of this year (2007).

Interestingly, almost 58.3% of primary school children use Internet as compared to 68.7% from middle school and finally with around 74.5% from high school.

On enquiring about the reason for visiting Internet, 67.2% of primary school children responded by saying that they visited the net for assistance in doing their homework. On the other hand, searching homepages and blogs topped the list among the children of middle and high school with 66.8% and 68.5%, respectively.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 7/23/2007