If you haven't seen the PBS Documentary Growing up Online I strongly recommend it.

As if you weren't already concerned we have assembled some sobering statistics and facts about the dangers your kids potentially face from the internet. These are the reasons for this site and so many others like it out there.

Youth-Specific Stats

• 9 out of 10 children between the ages of 8 and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet, in most cases unintentionally (London School of Economics January 2002).

• Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography: 11 years old (internet-filter-review.com).

• Largest consumer of Internet pornography: 12 – 17 year-old age group (internet-filter-review.com).

• Youth with significant exposure to sexuality in the media were shown to be 2.2 times more likely to have had intercourse at ages 14 to 16 (Report in Pediatrics, April, 2006).

• Adult industry says traffic is 20-30% children (NRC Report 2002, 3.3).

• "Never before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene) material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions." -- U.S. Department of Justice, Post Hearing Memorandum of Points and Authorities, at l, ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824 (1996).

How many children are solicited online?

According to a study published in 2006, one in seven youth online received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet. Sexual solicitations and approaches are requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information, that were unwanted or made by an adult.

• 27% of those who solicited youth online asked youth to take sexual pictures of themselves and send them
  
• 90% of the sexual solicitations happened to youth ages 13 and older
  
• 70% of the sexual solicitations were targeted at girls
  
• 41% of unwanted solicitations happened when youth were with friends or peers
  
• 56% of the youth who received solicitations did not tell anyone

 These statistics and more information can be found in “Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later,” published in 2006 by the University of New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention, and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Read the report.

Many teens are unconcerned about the dangers of sharing personal info online.

• A majority of teens (58%) do not think posting photos or other personal info on social networking sites is unsafe. They should read the news.
• Nearly half of teens (47%) are not worried about others using their personal info in ways they do not want (although that represents a 10-percentage-point improvement over 2006). About half (49%) are unconcerned posting personal info online might negatively affect their future. (Most employers now do a search for their prospective employees. With some of the information and pictures I have found on MySpace, they should be concerned.)

Teens are increasingly active online and at potential risk of falling prey to online predators.

• A large majority of teens (71%) have established online profiles (including those on social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster and Xanga), up from 61% in 2006.
• 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from people they do not know and most of them do not tell a trusted adult about it.
• Teens readily post personal info online. 64% post photos or videos of themselves, while more than half (58%) post info about where they live. Females are far more likely than male teens to post personal photos or videos of themselves (70% vs. 58%).
• Nearly one in 10 teens (8%) has posted his or her cell phone number online.
• Overall, 19% of teens report they have been harassed or bullied online, and the incidence of online harassment is higher (23%) among 16 and 17 year-olds. Girls are more likely to be harassed or bullied than boys (21% vs. 17%).