Parent/Guardian Involvement with Online Safety

Here are some of the findings about the parents and guardians of the youth surveyed and their involvement with online safety from Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later (2006)

• 88% of parents and guardians said they had talked to their children about giving out personal information online
• 86% of parents and guardians said they had talked to their children about the dangers of chatting online with people they do not know in person
• 77% of parents and guardians said they had talked to their children about responding to offensive, nasty, or mean messages
• 76% of parents and guardians said they had talked to their children about talking online about very personal things such as sex
• 76% of parents and guardians said they had talked to their children about dealing with X-rated pop-up ads or spam E-mail
• 51% of youth said their parents or guardians had spoken with them in their past year about seeing X-rated pictures on the Internet
• 47% of youth said their parents or guardians had spoken with them in the past year about people on the Internet who want to talk to them about sex
• 53% of youth said their parents or guardians had spoken with them in the past year about people on the Internet who might threaten, harass, or bother them
• 47% of families used software to block pop-up ads
• 47% of families used software to block spam
• 47% of families used software to filter sexually explicit images or Web sites
• 35% of families used software that monitored youths' online activities
• 31% of families used software that blocked or controlled use of chatrooms
• 30% of families used software that blocked personal information from being posted or E-mailed
• 22% of families used software that included a browser or search engine just for kids
• 11% of families used software that limited the amount of time youth could spend online
• 35% of parents and guardians had heard of places to report unwanted Internet experiences
• 12% of youth told parents or guardians about unwanted sexual solicitations
• 27% of youth told parents or guardians about exposures to sexual material
• 31% of youth told parents or guardians about a harassment