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Parents in the darkA recent Symantec study, the Norton Online Living Report, fielded by Harris Interactive, reports how kids and adults are spending their time online, do they talk to strangers, treat online friends different than offline friends, look for a date, pay a bill, play a game, or compare to the rest of the world? Of thousands of children and adults, Internet users in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Brazil, China and Japan, 52% around the world report having made friends online, suggesting that "don't talk to strangers" doesn't apply when in online worlds. In addition, 46% of users who made friends online said they enjoyed those relationships as much or more than friendships made offline. Other online activities ranking high around the world are dating (23%), using social networking sites (50%), and playing games (72%). The study found that parents in the US think their kids are online two hours a month, but in reality, kids report spending 20 hours a month online. And, 41% of US teens ages 13-17 years old agree that their parent have no idea what they are looking at online. Other key findings from the Norton Online Living Report...• About a third of online adults globally work on their personal blog at least sometimes. This number skyrockets to 86% among Chinese and 44% among Brazilians. Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate, Symantec, concludes that "Parents are in the dark when it comes to knowing what their kids are doing online... this report clearly demonstrates a global digital divide between parents and their cyber-savvy children..." And Dave Cole, Senior Product Manager, Norton by Symantec, says, "Two-way communications technologies-things like VoIP, chat and instant message-were seamlessly integrated into online games, virtual worlds, e-commerce sites and more... The integration happened so rapidly that we never stopped to think that we were really connecting with strangers... What surprised us was how fast this migration has occurred and how deeply it has infiltrated nearly every activity... " For more about this study, please visit Symantec here. Article courtesy of MediaPost |