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Teens Online Spend Hours on Porn and Dieting Sites
Filed under: In The News
I guess teenagers really are the same everywhere. A new survey shows that the average teenager in the UK spends more than 80 hours a year looking at pornography on the Internet. That translates to an hour and 40 minutes a week.
Of course, watching dirty movies is not all the kids are doing on the Internet. They're also spending an hour-and-a-half on dieting Web sites and one hour researching cosmetic surgery.
The poll asked more than a thousand kids, aged 13 to 15, how much time they spent online and what they did with it. The average teen spends more than 30 hours surfing the Web. In addition to porn, dieting and surgery, the kids are squeezing in over three hours of homework and research online. That's a good thing.
But then there's the hour-and-a-half downloading music, two hours on YouTube and more than three hours spent shopping or on auction sites each week. And lest we forget these are teenagers, there is the five hours a week spent on dating or social networking sites.
Mind you, this doesn't strike me as any different -- other than the technology used -- from teenagers in my day. (Now, when I was in high school, if we had had access to the Internet, an hour and a half would have been a daily total for most of the guys I knew -- on days when they were busy with other activities. Just saying.)
Of course, watching dirty movies is not all the kids are doing on the Internet. They're also spending an hour-and-a-half on dieting Web sites and one hour researching cosmetic surgery.
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The poll asked more than a thousand kids, aged 13 to 15, how much time they spent online and what they did with it. The average teen spends more than 30 hours surfing the Web. In addition to porn, dieting and surgery, the kids are squeezing in over three hours of homework and research online. That's a good thing.
But then there's the hour-and-a-half downloading music, two hours on YouTube and more than three hours spent shopping or on auction sites each week. And lest we forget these are teenagers, there is the five hours a week spent on dating or social networking sites.
Mind you, this doesn't strike me as any different -- other than the technology used -- from teenagers in my day. (Now, when I was in high school, if we had had access to the Internet, an hour and a half would have been a daily total for most of the guys I knew -- on days when they were busy with other activities. Just saying.)
| They never go online without me there with them | |
|---|---|
| I'm in the room and can see what they're doing | |
| The computer is in a public area, but I don't pay much attention | |
| I trust my kids to make good choices | |
| Kids will always find a way around parents, so why get in the way? |
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-10-2009 @ 9:26PM
ame s said...My kids are 9 and 11 & each have a desk top with a filter so strict they can't even Google. We upgraded the filter after our 11 year old complained that she couldn't "x away" a pop-up. Although she was on a supposedly kid-friendly sight, the pop-up was a pic of a girl in a sparkly bikini opening and closing her legs.
When my kids are old enough to leave home, they can set up their own computers however they like. At home, we will always filter and monitor the computers.
Reply
2-14-2009 @ 12:29PM
sarah said...Just letting you know, once your kids are 13 they will figure out how to shut off the filter. By blocking all that stuff by the time they don't have it they will be so surprised, which is not a good thing. they're going to see it eventually the longer they don't they become more dependent. and there's other sites besides Google to look things up on. trust me, i'm 13 and i figured out how to shut off filters in 5th grade. kids will usually find a way around, so its good to try. but you don't want to be so strict that kids won't know how to do things for themselves. and your kid will feel like an idiot every time she doesn't know what her friends are talking about. she probably doesn't have many friends anyway, we don't like dealing with annoying parents. she's never going to want her friends to meet you, and then you'll be thinking "what did i do wrong?" you are overprotective and too strict. and a girl in a bikini ? you can see that at the beach or the pool. and websites can't control which popups show up on their site.
2-14-2009 @ 6:01PM
sid said...if u think a parental block is going to keep a kid from looking up whatever he or she wants on a computer you are sadly mistaken bypassing a filter is very easy and its silly not to trust your kids to the point where they cant google
2-14-2009 @ 2:52PM
Kenz said...I agree with Sarah. You are definitely too strict. You can use filters on Google that will monitor what comes up. Whether to block adult pictures only, pictures and websites, or nothing at all. And as long as your child doesn't know about this, I'm 18 and I just found out about it last year and my parents don't even know about it at all, they should be safe. Not to mention, any website at all can have pornographic pop ups. And also the longer you wait the more surprised they will be and the less they will like you for filtering out almost everything and keeping them very protected. I would say once your children get to be around 13 you should probably ease up some on the over protectiveness or they're really going to become dependent on you and you don't want that do you. I know I was basically raised by an over protective mother and now I know I'm still a bit dependent and I also know that's not what she wanted so you probably need to loosen up a little bit when they start getting older.
Reply
2-18-2009 @ 9:27AM
Katy said...trust your kids, and they will be less likely to rulebreak. parents should trust their kids and teach them about the dangers of certain things on the internet. then, if they do anything to lose your trust, take away their computer privileges and talk to them about why whatever they did online can get them into trouble. it's the best way to keep them safe without completely restricting them.
Reply
2-15-2009 @ 7:54AM
Bill said...Hey ame s... i'd say these kids really laid it onto you. And rightfully so. I'm 26, teen years are still "just a while back" for me, and my two oldest nieces are 14 and 11... so I, of all people, can truly see things from both sides. You need to ease up.
Reply