December 21, 2009 Young kids searching Web for 'porn'Posted: 11:44 AM ET
Yikes. According to Symantec, the fourth most popular search term for children 7 and under is "porn" - just ahead of kids' networking site Club Penguin. [cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/21/kids.search.gif caption="Symantec's top searches for 2009 arranged by age group" height="218"]Symantec recently released the anonymous results of 14.7 million searches run by users of its OnlineFamily.Norton service in 2009. The service allows parents to monitor web activities and supposedly blocks questionable sites, so let's hope the toddlers searching for "porn" were unsuccessful. It's understandable that "sex" is one of the top searches for teens, but I was surprised to see that children as young as 7 were familiar with "porn." While services like OnlineFamily.Norton may filter most inappropriate content, they are not perfect - and are no substitute for parental supervision. Other search terms popular with children included social-networking sites, celebrities and online games. Interestingly, "Google" was also a top search term, which leads me to believe a lot of kids don't really understand how search engines work. Posted by: Wes Finley-Price -- CNN.com Webmaster |
![]() Are you a gadgethead? Do you spend hours a day online? Or are you just curious about how technology impacts your life? In this digital age, it's increasingly important to be fluent, or at least familiar, with the big tech trends. From gadgets to Google, smartphones to social media, this blog will help keep you informed. ![]() Recent Posts
Related Links
Archive
![]() |