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Internet Safety Facts

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the latest online victimization research shows:

• Approximately one in seven youth online (10 to 17-years-old) received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet.
  
  
• Four percent (4%) received an aggressive sexual solicitation-a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere; called them on the telephone; or sent them offline mail, money, or gifts.
  
  
• Thirty-four percent (34%) had an unwanted exposure to sexual material-pictures of naked people or people having sex.
  
  
• Twenty-seven percent (27%) of the youth who encountered unwanted sexual material told a parent or guardian. If the encounter was defined as distressing-episodes that made them feel very upset or afraid-forty-two percent (42%) told a parent or guardian.

How pervasive is the problem of child sexual exploitation?
Research indicates that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized before adulthood.

According to a 2002 study by the FBI:
When children enter an Internet chat room, they have a 100 percent chance of being approached by a predator. On average, contact takes place in 60 seconds or less.

According to a January 2006 Dateline study/episode:
Law enforcement officials estimate that as many as 50,000 sexual predators are online at any given moment.

According to a March 2006 New York Times article:
The Justice Department has 45 Internet Crimes Against Children task forces nationwide. Agents posing as under-age Internet users produced 600 arrests in 2005, a Justice Department spokeswoman said. NYT (03/09/06)

According to a survey released at the Third Annual Cox Communications National Summit on Internet Safety:

• Ninety percent (90%) of tweens report having used the Internet by nine years-old.
  
  
• A tween’s online presence doubles or even triples between the ages of 8 to 10 and 11 to 12.
  
  
• Thirty-four percent (34%) of eleven and twelve year-olds have a profile on a social networking site. Tweens with social networking profiles post more personal information online.
  
  
• More than one in five tweens post information about themselves online, including pictures, the city they live in and how old they are.
  
  
• Twenty-seven percent (27%) of tweens ages eleven to twelve admit to posting a fake age online.
  
  
• Twenty-eight percent (28%) of tweens have been contacted over the Internet by someone they don't know.
  
  
• The percentage of tweens that tell parents "a lot" or "everything" they do online drops rapidly with age. Only sixty-nine percent (69%) of eleven to twelve year-olds tell Mom and Dad a lot/everything versus eighty-six percent (86%) of eight year-olds to ten year-olds.
  
  
• Of tweens who have been contacted online by someone they don't know (twenty-eight percent), eighteen percent (18%) keep the messages to themselves, and eleven percent (11%) have chatted with the unknown person.