If you think your children are little angels when using the Internet, think again.
A new report by Norton claims that most Singaporeans are in the dark about their children's behaviour online.
While parents believe that most surf the net for 10 hours a week, the study shows that the average teenager is actually on for close to twice that amount.
Even more shocking is that almost all Singaporean parents think their kids don't surf pornographic websites.
The study showed that 1 out of 5 teens do so regularly.
Norton Internet Safety Advocate Effendy Ibrahim says that parents underestimate their children's ability to misbehave.
"If you look at parents who thought their children didn't download any unlicenced or illegal materials for example, 8 in 10 parents did not think their children did that, but in reality, 1 in 4 of their children actually do that. So it's a case of parents thinking that while things such as downloading or accessing illegal or unlicenced materials do not happen to their children, their children might actually be doing that sort of thing."
The report also showed that nearly half of Singaporean teenagers chat with strangers on the Internet more than once a week.
About 40% also give out their personal information online.
But the figures show that parents themselves are to blame.
Only half are aware about parental controls on internet usage, with 1 out of 5 actually implementing them.
Founder of the Coalition Against Bullying for Children and Youth or CABCY, Esther Ng emphasized that parents need to play their role better.
She says that without parental guidance, children are open to serious threats like cyber-bullying and online sexual harrassment.
"If they're not prepared for it, they could be in for a very rude shock. Especially when things happen to their children online in their own homes and family, it will be too late. That kind of rude shock is very scary, and because of that anonymity, they don't know who the perpetrator is. It naturally lands a victim very helpless."
Ms Ng said that parents should communicate with their kids to be more aware of their habits online.
--938Live
Nowadays, serving the internet has become part and parcel of a human's life here...