Over 40 per cent of children and teenagers who surf the internet are being exposed to online pornography, though most claimed they were not looking for it.
WASHINGTON: Over 40 per cent of children and teenagers who surf the internet are being exposed to online pornography, though most claimed they were not looking for it, according to a US study.
A team of researchers at the Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, found that 42 per cent of Internet users aged 10 to 17 said they had seen online pornography in the past one year before the study was conducted.
Of those, 66 per cent said they did not want to view the images and had not sought them out.
Unwanted exposure rates were higher for teens, youth who reported being harassed or sexually solicited online or interpersonally victimized offline, and those who were suffering from depression, the study featured in the latest issue of 'Pediatrics' says.
"Wanted exposure rates were higher for teens, boys, and youth who used file-sharing programs to download images, talked online to unknown persons about sex, used the Internet at friends' homes," it notes.
Youth who used filtering and blocking software had lower odds of wanted exposure. "More research concerning the potential impact of Internet pornography on youth is warranted, given the high rate of exposure, the fact that much exposure is unwanted, and the fact that youth with certain vulnerabilities... have more exposure."
The results are out of a telephone survey of 1,500 Internet users aged 10 to 17 conducted in 2005 with their parents' consent. Overall, 34 per cent had unwanted exposure to online pornography, up from 25 per cent in a similar survey conducted in 1999 and 2000.
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