Some 68 percent of Australian children say they have had a negative experience online, and 10 percent say they have experienced cyber bullying, according to a new Symantec report.
Yet only half that number of parents believe their child has experienced online bullying, the report says.
These are among the findings of Symantec’s Norton Online Family Report, the third of its kind.
Despite the above findings, it claims the figures show Australian parents lead the way worldwide in setting house rules for their kids’ Internet use and in talking to them about practicing safe online habits.
Some 78 percent of Australian parents say they have set house rules, compared with 66 percent worldwide.
And it says Australian parents are more likely than those in most other countries to contact the school if their child has a negative experience online or has been the victim of cybercrime – 42 percent versus 29 percent worldwide.
Some other findings:
– Australian parents believe their children spend an average 11 hours online each week – and children themselves confirm the figure is 11 hours. “This is a big shift from last year when children spent almost twice as much time online as their parents believed,” the report says.
– More than half of parents say they know “sometimes” what their child looks at online. But 28 percent of children reckon their parents have no idea of what they do online.
