*Adult* Children having online sex chats increasing.
 

'Children having online sex chats'


Almost half of children have lied about their web activities, with 11 per cent having sexually explicit conversations online, a survey has shown.
The annual Mobile Life poll of 6,000 adults and children for Carphone Warehouse showed youngsters often pretend to do homework when they are surfing the net or visiting social networking sites.
And it found 87 per cent of parents believed they were fully aware of the content their children accessed on the internet, while 86 per cent were confident their children would not do anything they disapproved of.
But more than a quarter of 11 to 18-year-olds, or 28 per cent, had visited adult websites while 27 per cent of young people had interacted with strangers and 10 per cent had met up with someone in person that they originally found while surfing.
One in seven UK children, 14 per cent, admitted to having felt uncomfortable in online situations while one in three, 33 per cent, admitted they would be in trouble if their parents knew what they were looking at.
Most parents had not checked their children's internet history, but 26 per cent of those who had found something they were unhappy with. A tenth of parents said their children had reported worrying web incidents.
Despite parents' concerns about safety, more than half of youngsters, 55 per cent, said the internet had vastly improved their life and access at home was as essential as a fridge or cooker.
TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, who contributed suggestions to the report to help parents discuss the internet with their children, said: "I think the key is for parents to treat the issue of online safety in the same way that they would approach other potential danger areas.
"Would you let your children learn how to cross the road via trial and error? No, you teach them the Green Cross Code. Now, with the increasing importance of wireless technology and the role it plays in our children's lives, we must all learn and teach the Online Safety Code."
Her suggestions include parents learning how to set privacy settings on home computers, telling children never to give details to strangers and to limit personal data on social networking sites and teaching children how to report abuse or offensive material.

1. What kids are they asking that would admit to that?

2. How do they know that these kids aren't saying things to take the piss? Gawd knows I would. Especially if I was with my friends. XD

To be honest it's hard not to visit adult websites when you're looking for things on the internet. It happened to me loads of times that I was simply doing my homework and looking something up on the internet and some random porn sites would come up. Once they're up it's no surprise that children get curious and want to have a look around. It doesn't hurt anyone.

Children are genuinly curious of the goings on in the "adult world". It doesn't surprise me that children on occasion visit these websites. I know i did when i was younger.

Yeah I'm sure I probably looked at porn when I was around 14. It did me no harm. It's kinda not surprising, all those hormones flying around, and easy access to information to satisfy one's curiosity. As for sex chat's orr whatever, as someone said, you can leave the situation so easily if you feel uncomfortable. Change sites, switch the computer, whatever. Change your screen name if you need to. In a way, the internet is sort of the easiest way to get out of trouble, so long as you were sensible in the first place.

I also agree with the whole needing to teach about internet safety, not giving out personal details, if you meet up with people- do it in public with a friend, etc.

Firstly, i'm 19 and still wouldn't admit to my mother that I watch porn.
Secondly the 11-18 age gap is ridiculously big, I personally wouldn't consider anyone over the age of 13 to be a child. 'Child' and 'Teenager' are conpletely different stages.
When I read the title I was thinking about it being about some 8 year old kids or something. But a 14 year old watching porno? Big deal.
I don't think there's anything wrong with 'children' being 'sexually curious' shall we say. I know I was watching porn at 14, and 'interacting with strangers'.
It's not what they do online, it's what they do offline that should concern parents more.

RYLers are strangers!!!
Help!
Being between the ages of 11-18 means I am definitely not capable of judging what is safe.
God.

I think the age gap that they focus on, 11-18 is way too diverse to really matter. I mean an 11 year is very different than say a 13 year old. And what's the big deal about the older 15-18 year olds finding themselves on adult websites, it's typical. As long as they don't share personal information, I don't see a problem with it.

Around age 11 your body is starting to change, you get different feelings and desires than you had as a child. That's about the time that you get "The Talk" and learn about what's happening. Now most parents aren't going to go into specific detail when giving this talk, so it leaves a lot out in the open. Basic curiousity kicks in from there.

Honestly, I think that online is probably the safest way for a 'child' to learn about sex. There's no real risk other than the fact of feeling uncomforable, in which the 'child' has the option to just leave or ignore someone. There's no possibility of pregnancy, STDs or actual sex, so why blow it out of proportion? There is a risk of child predators, yes, but that risk is also present in their every day life outside of the internet.

Your child visited a porno page, so what? Did any real harm come from that? Think about it. Sure they may have unrealistic expectations now, but it's safer than them exporing these things in real life.

fo reallll.

this reminds me of that film me & you & everyone we know, i don't know if anyone has seen it. but there's this one bit where a six year old boy is cybering just for lols, and its so joke. i don't think it's a "good thing" but i don't think kids cybering, even with strangers or whatever is a big deal at allll, as long as they're not meeting random old men off the net to have actual sex with then it's just words and typing.
and yeah, 11-18, big age gap, etc etc. everything everyone else said too.

"10 per cent had met up with someone in person that they originally found while surfing."

To be fair, this statistic sounds bad, but I know loads of people who have mets friends-of-friends, etc, who they origionally met online, and then later met up. That's not the same, as meeting someone off a forum for example, because they're known by friends, this is especially true with people met over myspace/bebo/etc.

Infact the only people I've known meet people who aren't friend-of-friends off the internet has been via RYL.

You really make me laugh linda :p

*shrugs* gotta get sex education from somewhere.