Kids online? Contact with strangers is not unusual

Bob Dart | Cox News Service

July 24, 2008

One in five of the nation's wired "tweens" -- kids ages 8 to 12 -- has posted personal information on the Internet, and more than a fourth have been contacted online by strangers, (Photos.com)

One in five of the nation's wired "tweens" -- kids ages 8 to 12 -- has posted personal information on the Internet, and more than a fourth have been contacted online by strangers, a poll released Tuesday found.

One in 10 of these preteenagers has responded to and chatted online with strangers, according to the Tween Internet Safety Survey, sponsored by Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The survey of children in this age group with online access was conducted by TRU, which specializes in research about tweens, teens and 20-somethings.

The survey and a conference with teen and tween participants from across the country described a child's cyberspace world where 90 percent of American kids have used the Internet by age 9 and more than a third of 11- and 12-year-olds have a profile on social-network sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Of the tweens with social-network profiles, 61 percent post personal photos online, 48 percent admit to posting a fake age online and 51 percent have received messages from people they didn't know.

The survey showed tweens' online presence doubles or even triples among 8- to 10-year-olds and 11- and 12-year-olds: The 42 percent of children 8 to 10 with personal e-mail accounts increases to 71 percent for those 11 and 12, for instance, and 41 percent of 11- and 12-year-olds have an instant-messaging screen name, compared with 15 percent for kids 8 to 10.

Half of the 11- and 12-year-olds have their own cell phones -- used for text messaging and taking and transmitting digital photos as well as for traditional calling -- while 19 percent of those 8 to 10 have their own cell phones.