Online Safety Statistics

According to a June 8, 2000 study carried out by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, one in five children who participated in a study of offensive behavior on the Internet report that they have received a sexual solicitation or advance in the last year.

The study, "Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth," found that, out of 5,000 10- to 17-year-olds interviewed, 25 percent said they have been exposed to pictures of naked people over the last year during Internet use. One in 17 was threatened or harassed. Nearly half the advances were from someone they believed to be younger than 18, and 25 percent of children propositioned had replied to the online advance. A full 66 percent of those propositioned were female, with three quarters of the sexual advances occurring in the child's own home using a home computer. The study took place between August 1999-February 2000. For more information, please access: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/youth_internet_info_page.html

56% of girls queried use the Internet for chat rooms and message boards, compared to 44% for boys, consequently, a female's tendency toward more communication puts young girls even more at risk than boys due to higher use of chat rooms.
(Source: Jupiter Communications "Kids Online Survey" , 1999)
(http://www.unc.edu/courses/law357c/cyberprojects/spring00/cyberkids/Clegis.html)

"There are now at least 40,000 porn sites on the World Wide Web and probably thousands more. No one has been able to count them all."
( U.S. News & World Report, 3/27/2000)
(http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/~kochm32/re1.htm)

"62% of parents of teenagers are unaware that their children have accessed objectionable web sites."
(Source: Yankelovich Partners Study, September 1999)
(http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/~kochm32/re1.htm)

"There are more than 40,000 individual URLs containing child pornography, pedophilia and pro-pedophilia content."
(Safeguarding Our Children-United Mothers & CyberAngels "Our Kids In Danger List," 2000)
(http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/~kochm32/re1.htm)

"Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. 'stealth' sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children."
(Source: Cyveillance Study, March 1999)
(http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/~kochm32/re1.htm)

"The majority of teenagers' online use occurs at home, right after school, when working parents are not at home."
(Source: Arbitron New Media Study, October 1999)
(http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/~kochm32/re1.htm)

"Sex is the #1 searched for topic on the Internet."
(Source: Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times, 1/26/2000)
(http://www.familyschoice.com/main/extent-stats.htm)