KIDS MORE AT RISK ONLINE THAN ALONE ON STREETS

Its Child Safety Week (23-29 June) and British parents think children are more at risk on the internet than unsupervised in a park or on the streets in daylight hours according to a YouGov poll. But while nearly all parents with children aged 6 to 16 warn their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car or to walk alone at night, less than half have a protection package to monitor their children when using chat rooms and surfing the net.

The Child Safety Week 2008 theme is - ?Make a change, make a difference? and working with Child Safety and parenting expert, Pat Spungin to urge parents to take this on board and make changes to protect their children online. She is also keen to bring back Charley Says! Most parents who grew up in the 70s vividly remember the public information film that alerted children to the dangers of talking to strangers. Times have moved on but the way parents are protecting their children hasn?t.

The survey conducted by Sentry Parental Controls survey found:
52% of all British adults thought children were MOST at risk in internet chat rooms, versus 19% who said unsupervised in the park in daylight hours and 11% who thought walking alone to a friend?s house during daytime was the greatest risk.

However, while 90% of parents of 6 to 16 year olds tell their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car and 74% advise children not to walk alone at night, only 68% offer any forms of advice to children on how to protect themselves online and even less - at 43% - have any form of protection software to monitor their children?s online activity.

A further sign of the times was that 60% of parents with children 6 to 16 year olds believed that banning a child from using a computer was viewed by them as a far worse punishment than grounding them (just 34% said their children would think grounding them was the worst punishment of the two).

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc . Total sample size was 2,073 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 25th - 27th March 2008. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).


Regional Stats:
London
48% of all British adults thought children were MOST at risk in internet chat rooms, versus 20% who said unsupervised in the park in daylight hours and 6% who thought walking alone to a friend?s house during daytime was the greatest risk.

However, while 88% of parents of 6 to 16 year olds tell their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car and 60% advise children not to walk alone at night, only 54% offer any forms of advice to children on how to protect themselves online and even less - at 40% - have any form of protection software to monitor their children?s online activity.

A further sign of the times was that 43% of parents with children 6 to 16 year olds believed that banning a child from using a computer was viewed by them as a far worse punishment than grounding them (just 47% said their children would think grounding them was the worst punishment of the two).


Rest of South
55% of all British adults thought children were MOST at risk in internet chat rooms, versus 18% who said unsupervised in the park in daylight hours and 10% who thought walking alone to a friend?s house during daytime was the greatest risk.

However, while 90% of parents of 6 to 16 year olds tell their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car and 77% advise children not to walk alone at night, only 69% offer any forms of advice to children on how to protect themselves online and even less - at 43% - have any form of protection software to monitor their children?s online activity.

A further sign of the times was that 60% of parents with children 6 to 16 year olds believed that banning a child from using a computer was viewed by them as a far worse punishment than grounding them (just 33% said their children would think grounding them was the worst punishment of the two).


Midlands/Wales
49% of all British adults thought children were MOST at risk in internet chat rooms, versus 19% who said unsupervised in the park in daylight hours and 11% who thought walking alone to a friend?s house during daytime was the greatest risk.

However, while 89% of parents of 6 to 16 year olds tell their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car and 75% advise children not to walk alone at night, only 78% offer any forms of advice to children on how to protect themselves online and even less - at 46% - have any form of protection software to monitor their children?s online activity.

A further sign of the times was that 64% of parents with children 6 to 16 year olds believed that banning a child from using a computer was viewed by them as a far worse punishment than grounding them (just 32% said their children would think grounding them was the worst punishment of the two).


North
55% of all British adults thought children were MOST at risk in internet chat rooms, versus 19% who said unsupervised in the park in daylight hours and 13% who thought walking alone to a friend?s house during daytime was the greatest risk.

However, while 90% of parents of 6 to 16 year olds tell their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car and 78% advise children not to walk alone at night, only 65% offer any forms of advice to children on how to protect themselves online and even less - at 41% - have any form of protection software to monitor their children?s online activity.

A further sign of the times was that 64% of parents with children 6 to 16 year olds believed that banning a child from using a computer was viewed by them as a far worse punishment than grounding them (just 30% said their children would think grounding them was the worst punishment of the two).


Scotland
48% of all British adults thought children were MOST at risk in internet chat rooms, versus 18% who said unsupervised in the park in daylight hours and 13% who thought walking alone to a friend?s house during daytime was the greatest risk.

However, while 88% of parents of 6 to 16 year olds tell their children not to talk to strangers if they pull up in a car and 67% advise children not to walk alone at night, only 56% offer any forms of advice to children on how to protect themselves online and even less - at 35% - have any form of protection software to monitor their children?s online activity.

A further sign of the times was that 54% of parents with children 6 to 16 year olds believed that banning a child from using a computer was viewed by them as a far worse punishment than grounding them (just 37% said their children would think grounding them was the worst punishment of the two).