Statistics on Internet Safety Issues

I have to include this is my blog because I am the type of person who likes to see numbers and statistics. It adds clarity and puts things into a better perspective. Although this is an older study done in 2001 I find the percentages mentioned fascinating and frightening. The information comes from an article written by Dr. John Barnett who 'taught high school science for 20 years before completing his PhD at OISE. He is now an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario'. The article is titled, Internet Safety in School: Some Thoughts for Science Teachers (June 2004)

"In 2001, the Government of Canada along with the Canadian non-profit group, Media Awareness Network, commissioned a comprehensive study of nine to seventeen year-old children.1 They found that the Internet was used by 99% of Canadian children, 79% at home. The study found that 56% of children use Internet-based chat rooms (with more than two thirds of that group using unmonitored chat rooms) and 41% used instant messaging. They found that more than 10% of children had disabled the Internet filters at school or at home. More disturbingly, they found that almost 20% of children had been e-mailed a message that bothered or frightened them and that such children more often told a friend than an adult about it. More than 10% of those who use instant messaging said that they had been threatened while using it. The study also found that more than 40% of their sample had been approached by someone asking for their personal information, with nearly half of that group giving away the information. Less than 10% told their parents about the encounter. As for risky behaviour, about 25% of children reported that someone they met on the Internet had asked to meet them face to face and more than 10% had actually met that person. Of that group, 12% said they had a bad experience. In seven percent of the cases, children said that the stranger initiated sexual contact and six percent said the stranger was violent. Ten percent said the stranger was not attractive or not the age or appearance they claimed to be."