PARENT ALERT! What are your kids doing online?

 

Have you ever talked to your children about their Internet habits? Or have you ever taken the time to sit back and analyze your own Internet habits? Whether or not you have, if you’re a parent, you should take a look at a recent Symantec study, the Norton Online Living Report, done by Harris Interactive. The report talks about the Internet habits of kids and adults and their similarities and differences.

The study found that kids report spending 20 hours a month online while their parents only think they are spending about two hours a month online. Even worse, 41 percent of teens report their parents have no idea what they are doing online.

These days, people, both kids and adults, are spending more of their time online, chatting with strangers, dating and playing games.

 

Social network sites are real big right now with kids and parents. 35 percent of children ages 13-17 said they “constantly,” “frequently” or “sometimes” visited social network sites, while 47 percent of adults answered the same way.

 

So are your children being approached by strangers online? Yes, 16 percent of children reported they had been approached by strangers online. An interesting fact is that 52 percent of children in the U.S. (along with other countries) suggest that they don’t talk to strangers online, yet 35 percent of U.S. children ages 8-17 have made friends online while 50 percent of teens ages 13-17  report that they have made friends with people online.

 

The report also suggests that Internet users shop online, work on personal blogs, read the news from online web sites or blog sites along with other online habits.

 

For more about this study, please visit Symantec here.