What are your children searching for?
What do sex, porn and Club Penguin all have in common? They made it into the top 5 of the “Kids’ Top 100 Searches of 2009″ list, according to Symantec.
Symantec recently released its “Kids’ Top 100 Searches of 2009″ list, and it certainly makes for alarming reading.
Topping the list are YouTube, Facebook and Google which are popular with all age groups. This may seem somewhat surprising, but it seems that people are increasingly plugging website names into a search engine rather than using their bookmarks or typing in the full web address with a .com at the end. The list also contains some predictable entries – Miley Cyrus, her alter ego Hannah Montana, Beyonce, Britney Spears and Twilight all make the top 100.
When it comes to the under 7 category, there are also some predictable entries – Cartoon Network, Disney, Club Penguin and Webkinz, for example. But there are some surprising entries too – porn in 4th position, for example! Yikes! It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that this was a popular search among older teenagers…but kids under 7?!!
Symantec collected the data from users of OnlineFamily.Norton, a parental control package. Consequently, it is possible that the results could be somewhat skewed in that people who are using the package may be using it for a reason: namely, because their kids have been searching the internet for inappropriate material. That said, the results probably aren’t skewed by much.
So, back to my original question: Do you know what your kids are searching for? And what steps do you take to monitor or restrict their surfing?
You can check out the full list here.
Influence,
I am married with 4 kids and the oldest is close to teenage. And, it is very hard to keep up esspecially when you work 8 hours a day, knowing the influences they get through internet and television. The main concern, I have are cartoons and pre-teens playing a role showing interest with different gender and mischieving (monkey see’s, monkey do).
That is the worst writing I’ve ever seen. I think that’s a worse influence on your kids than porn.
You must fit into the tween catagory, given your irrelevant comment.
Like everything else, internet time needs to be monitored. I have a PC that I use for work which is locked both biometrically (fingerprint scanner) and physically (locked case cover, the key stays with me),not to mention a log on count. That system is in the study.
My daughter has the use of the PC in the family room. It’s out in open and I have site tracking software on it. There is no need for her to
have a PC in her bedroom. Call it militant, but the easiest way to let kids surf porn sites, is to give them the ability to do it in the first place.
Good Work
Norm
If I had kids, there is no way I would let them use a computer when I wasn’t right there with them. There is way too much filthy and damaging stuff available at the touch of a keystroke. Parents who let their kids have access to computers need to realize that their children are losing their childhood and their innocence.
Computers have not improved our lives, and they especially haven’t improved our children’s lives. Go outside, get off the computer!
[...] would probably be your first assumption, right? However, if you look at a post I wrote a while ago about Symantec’s list called “Kids’ Top 100 Searches of 2009″, you would find [...]