Children are on reality spending an average of 18 hours online weekly. --PHOTO: ST
THERE is a gap between what parents think their children are doing online and what their kids are actually doing in real life.
For instance, adults think kids are online for 10 hours a week. In reality, children are spending an average of 18 hours online weekly.
Also, 74 per cent of parents or adults playing parenting roles in the home said their children were not chatting with strangers online.
In reality, nearly half of all the child respondents, or 48 per cent, were chatting with strangers on the Internet more than once a week.
The results were part of the Norton Online Living Family Survey, commissioned globally by Internet security firm Symantec, as well as in Singapore, between April and May.
In Singapore, 397 people were surveyed online in panels, with gender and age groups that represented the population. Research company Saffron Hill carried out the study.
The results of the study, released on Thursday, showed that parents were still out of touch with their kids, said founder of the Coalition Against Bullying for Children and Youth (Cabcy) Esther Ng.
She said this usually resulted in parents being 'in a state of shock' when they find out about their children's online activities, particularly if they get in trouble.
She gets cries for help from parents for cases such as cyberbullying and online sexual harassment at the rate of once to twice a week, she said.
