According to the Evening Times, parents are blissfully unaware of the fact that within ten seconds of going online, their kids will be swamped by hundreds of kiddie-fiddlers. Apparently while 94% of parents know about the risk of online grooming and 90% know their kids might encounter pornography, a shocking 83% still let kids surf the net unattended while 60% don’t believe the Net is dangerous to children.

The key here is the statement with which parents disagreed: “The Internet is dangerous for my children”. That doesn’t mean they necessarily believe it’s not dangerous for any children; it’s that they don’t believe it’s dangerous for *their* children. That may mean a shocking lack of interest, but equally it could mean that they use filtering software, have frank conversations with their kids and are realistic rather than hysterical about the risks.

Update, 4th Sept

Sorry, I didn’t make it clear where the statistics come from: the Times is reporting the results of a YouGov survey commissioned on behalf of electrical retailer Comet and the NCH children’s charity. The survey data doesn’t seem to be online just yet.