Most US parents said their children had encountered "issues" like bad language, sex or advertising online over the past year, but they are not stopping their kids' Internet use, according to a new study.

A survey by market researcher Harris Interactive of 411 parents of children aged between 6-18 who use the Internet found 71 percent said their child had at least "one issue" with the Internet in the past year.

But four out of five parents said the Internet helped their children in school and only three in 10 parents - or 31 percent - said their children spent too much time online.

Rather than banning or restricting online access, parents were found to take an active role in monitoring their children with 93 percent engaging in some sort of monitoring activity, said the survey released yesterday.

"The poll confirms that parents continue to have issues with their kids' Web use, but those issues aren't scaring them away from letting their kids go online," said James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, which commissioned the study with Cable in the Classroom.

The survey was released a day after New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office had subpoenaed Facebook, the networking site, for not keeping young users safe from sexual predators and not responding to user complaints.

It found that 24 percent of parents reported their kids were exposed to strong language, sexual or violent content online over the past year and 52 percent of parents said their child was exposed to advertising.

But to address these problems 74 percent of parents visited websites with their children, 56 percent reported using a filter or blocking software, and 55 percent would visit a website before their child.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/27/2007 page9)