With more than 90% of teenagers going online on a fairly regular basis, parents must be aware of certain Internet safety facts that can affect the well-being of their children. Although adults sometimes worry about hacking, computer viruses, and the risk of making online purchases, there should be nothing more important than the safety of their children against online predators.

However, there is a considerable disparity between parents and children in terms of the degree of risk involved when it comes to the online activities of the latter. Some over-protective parents may have exaggerated views as to the probability of danger for their children, a fact which is not helped by alarmist advertising by online security providers eager to sell their products. Children on the other hand are often unaware of the actual danger involved. Teenagers in particular, tend to regard the views of their parents as disproportionately alarmist.

Objectively speaking, here are some Internet safety facts that may clarify the issue for both parents and their children. The data have been collected by independent academic researchers without any political or commercial purposes that may affect the research process.

Fact 1: Only 5% of sex offenders pretended they were teenagers when they interacted with minors online. In the vast majority of cases, victims knew they were communicating with adults.

Fact 2: Sex offenders are quite open about their sexual interests with their potential victims. The topic of sex is usually brought up before meeting face-to-face, and most minors who go to such meetings expect to engage in sexual activity.

Fact 3: According to law enforcement officials, at any time there are at least fifty thousand sexual predators online.

Fact 4: About 90% of sexual solicitations of minors happen in chat rooms or through instant messaging. This means that monitoring children’s email activities is quite ineffectual but not entirely useless.

Fact 5: More than 3 out of 4 victims of online predators were older children, and are at least 14 years old.

Fact 6: Girls are much more likely to be targeted than boys, especially girls who have posted sexually provocative pictures and videos of themselves online. Boys who have been approached by predators are those who profess to be gay, or who have expressed questions about their sexuality.

Fact 7: In about 1 out of 4 cases, predators have requested minors to post sexy pictures or videos of themselves.

Fact 8: About 7 out of 10 children communicate regularly with strangers and do not tell their parents.

Fact 9: About 3 out of 4 children of school age (8 to 17 years old) have accidentally seen Internet porn, often by entering a “safe” search word while doing research for schoolwork.

Fact 10: Sex crimes against children have not increased. This is one of the facts, which counteracts alarmist views regarding the Internet and its use for the abuse of children. While the use of the Internet expanded from 1990 to 2005, child protective personnel have reported a 50% decline in the number of sex abuse cases for the period. In addition, the National Crime Victimization Survey reported a decline of more than 50% in the rate of sexual assaults as reported by teenagers.

All these Internet safety facts indicate that further research is necessary. In the meantime, children must be made aware of the dangers regarding conversing with strangers online, so that sexual predation through the Internet can be reduced.