A quarter of youngsters aged between 15 and 16 have gone to meet somebody they met on the internet according to a recent survey by online advertising company, Broadbean Technology.
The surveys, distributed to Year 11s in London schools to gauge how young people used the web, found that 28% of boys and over a fifth of girls had gone to meet a cyber ìfriendî.
The revelation comes a day after Ofcom, the independent media regulator, published research citing that 41 % of childrenís social networking profiles are open to the public.
The majority of teens surveyed, who will begin their GCSEs next month, said they used the internet to download music, socialise and play games though very few admitted to using the internet to help them with homework and less than a fifth said they would look for a job online.
Broadbeanís research found that 90% of participants had access to the internet at home and nearly half ranked social networking site, Myspace, as their favourite place to meet friends. The research exposed teenage boysí online behaviour to be more disturbing than girls as one in ten admitted to looking at ìinappropriateî or ìadult materialî specifying hardcore porn sites such as 89.com and Youporn.com as their favourites.
Keith Robinson, Director - Europe, at Broadbean Technology and father of four comments, ìWe werenít surprised by these results, it is great that young people are utilising the internet for social interaction but what the survey highlighted was the need for parents and educational powers to establish ground rules, training and awareness about the dangers that young people could face.î
ìThe web is not a secret place but it is teenage rebellion online and they see ìMyspaceî literally as their own space away from parents. Parents need to let them have their virtual world but establish clear old-fashioned rules in the physical one, where it is unacceptable to go and meet a stranger without their consent.î
Dan McGuire, Broadbean MD and a regular speaker in local schools adds, ìWe assume that because young people can use Myspace and spend so much time online that they have mastered the internet. However, our results show that the next generation of jobseeker has had no training on how to enhance their careers or look for a job.î
42% of London teenagers not used to looking for work using the Internet
But survey from Broadbean reveals some disturbing truths about web use amongst London school leavers
