Research: Internet forcing parents to have 'facts of life' chat with children aged 10

Research has revealed that by the age of ten years old, most children today will have already had their first "facts of life" talk with their parents.

The study by AVG Technologies says this is up to five years earlier than their parents’ generation, the majority of whom (50%) could not remember having had the conversation until the age of 15 – if at all (42%).

Parents highlighted the internet as a driving force behind the advance in this conversation, as concerns over how much time their children spent on devices (a worry for 42%) and how easy it is for them to access porn online (47%) were clear.

The most popular methods parents use to tackle the online safety of their children included forbidding their child from visiting unknown websites without asking permission (53%); forbidding their child from talking to strangers or buying items online (51%); and only allowing their child online for a set amount of time (44%).

However, no single action alone was favored by the overwhelming majority.

Despite more than eight out of ten (81%) parents implementing one or more restrictions, only a third (35%) of the children asked alongside their parents thought that the Internet could be dangerous.

The majority of parents also said that by the age of 12, they felt their child would know more than them about the Internet and one in five (19%) said that this had or would have already happened by the age of nine.

“This illustrates the need to start the process of learning the dos and don’ts of the Internet at a young age, and of parents and children undertaking it together as a joint activity,” said Judith Bitterli, Chief Marketing Officer, AVG Technologies.