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Lost in MySpace: How a generation of children are being raised online, spending 20 hours a week on the internet
Last updated at 00:22am on 25.03.08
A generation of children are growing up 'online' according to a new report
A generation of children are effectively being "raised online", spending most of their free time on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, a report warns today.
It says that many under-16s spend more than 20 hours a week glued to the internet, three times higher than official estimates.
With millions left to surf the web on their own, 57 per cent of children have seen online pornography, most of it accidentally in the form of "pop-up" adverts.
And one in four has received obscene "spam" e-mail, according to the Centre-Left think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research.
It found that young people are "constantly connected", staying up to the early hours surfing the internet and leaving their mobile phones on all night in case they receive a text message.
Apart from porn, many are also being exposed to scenes of violence - such as socalled "happy slapping" attacks - on home video sites such as YouTube.
Although many sites have community guidelines or acceptable use policies, the report warns they are not being properly enforced.
On YouTube, for example, a search for the term "happy slap" delivered 117 videos posted in the last week and 'street fight' 312 videos.
The most popular video on one website dedicated entirely to scenes of violence was called "Girl Beat Up In Street" and had been viewed more than 1,300,000 times.
The IPPR findings come ahead of a major report ordered by Gordon Brown which will this week raise deep concerns over the lack of control that parents have over what their children are able to access online.
The explosion in social networking sites, which allow users to chat online and exchange personal details and photographs, has highlighted the need for scrutiny.
MySpace, the biggest social network, has more than 110million users worldwide while Facebook, the second-largest, has more than 60million.
TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, who has conducted a six-month review for the Prime Minister into the potentially harmful effects of video games and the internet, said: "Kids know more about the technologies than adults. They are using them more and they understand how to use them."
She is expected to recommend that parents and children should receive lessons in internet safety, including the use of security software.
Children should also receive advice on limiting the amount of information about themselves they release online.
As the Daily Mail revealed last week, one simple suggestion will be that computers are positioned in shared areas of homes, such as living rooms, rather than bedrooms.
That would allow parents to monitor the internet sites being viewed and video games being played by their children.
