Kids Exposed to 'Bad Experiences' on Net

Kids Exposed to ‘Bad Experiences’ on Net is a Deccan Herald report published on 28 June 2010 by L Subramani. The article examines findings from the Norton Online Family Report and a McAfee study on children’s online safety, highlighting gaps in parental awareness of cyber bullying and risky behaviour. It includes commentary from Sunil Abraham, then Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, contextualising the research within emerging concerns about children’s internet safety.

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Article Details

📰 Published in:: Deccan Herald
📅 Date:: 28 June 2010
👤 Authors:: L Subramani
📄 Type:: News Report
📰 Newspaper Link:: Read Online

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The "Norton online family report" released last week has found that five out of six parents do not know that children are having bad experiences online such as cyber bullying, personal insults and exposure to pornography.

"We put a series of statements to the children interviewed for the report (who were between the age of 8–17) and 77 per cent of them have admitted to have had 'bad experiences' online," said Effendy Ibrahim, online family expert at Norton. "A majority of them who have admitted to have had bad experiences online went on to describe their top emotions as anger, upset, fear and a sense of violation. The possible good news is that they turn to their parents for help when such things happen to them online," he added.

The study — which cover 2,800 children and 7,000 parents in 14 countries worldwide, including India - has also found that parents have control over when their children are online and for how long, but children, despite following the rules, know that they know much more than their parents about the 'bad things' online.

On the contrary, it has found that parents in the US have much better understanding of the internet and what their children do online.

"We wanted to basically focus on children because they acquire sophistication faster in operating the internet and they can do it through more devices than we did as adults," Effendy pointed out.

McAfee, another internet security firm, has also released a report last week in which it had said that teenagers are more inclined to share personal details online with strangers. About 900 of them between the age of 13 and 17, which included 360 in the age group of 16-17, primarily in the US, has shown roughly half of them share personal details with strangers.

It also shows more than half of early teens have updated their social networking status to reveal their physical locations. Though the India specific statistics are not available, the study comes as further example of vulnerabilities children face online, which, experts say are becoming largely universal. Reacting to the reports, Bangalore-based NGO Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), who research on internet and its impact on families, said cyber bullying has been widely pointed at as one of the common phenomena felt by children.

"We have been following other reports by those like the Berkman Centre, which has indeed shown prevalence of cyber bullying largely from their peer groups, though the likelihood of adult sexual predators approaching them online may be exaggerated," said Sunil Abraham, Director, CIS.

Context and Background

This report appeared during a period when social networking platforms were rapidly expanding amongst young users, raising fresh questions about digital safety. The Norton Online Family Report, conducted by StrategyOne in February 2010, surveyed children aged 8-17 and their parents across 14 countries, revealing substantial disconnects between parental perceptions and children’s actual online experiences.

Research at the time indicated that whilst parents often imposed time limits and basic rules, they frequently lacked awareness of the specific risks their children encountered. Studies from institutions like Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society found that cyber harassment amongst young people was predominantly peer-driven rather than involving external predators, challenging popular assumptions about online dangers.

The early 2010s marked a transition point in internet access patterns. Children were beginning to use multiple devices—computers, mobile phones, gaming consoles—making monitoring more complex. Location-sharing features on emerging social platforms created new privacy vulnerabilities, particularly as teenagers posted real-time updates without understanding potential consequences.

Indian data on children’s online safety remained limited during this period, though subsequent research would show high rates of cyber bullying amongst young internet users in the country. The Centre for Internet and Society’s work on these issues contributed to broader policy discussions about children’s digital rights and safety measures.

Abraham’s comments reflected ongoing debates within internet safety research about balancing genuine risks with exaggerated fears. Whilst stranger danger narratives dominated public discourse, evidence suggested that most online harassment came from known peers. This distinction mattered for designing effective interventions, as strategies addressing predatory adults differed from those tackling peer-to-peer bullying.

The reports discussed in this article preceded widespread smartphone adoption amongst children and the rise of visual-based platforms, developments that would further complicate internet safety conversations in subsequent years.