One-in-five admit to viewing inappropriate material
• 2.8 million children in UK have a smartphone – including almost a million 8-12 year olds (25 per cent)
• 87 per cent of children do not have parental security restrictions on their mobile phones
• Almost forty percent of children use the phones to access videos and social networking sites
A report in The Daily Mail continues: Parents are being warned to monitor their children’s use of smartphones as new research suggests vast numbers of youngsters have used them to access illicit pictures and videos.
Only 13 per cent of children have security settings installed on their smartphones, said a new report released today.
This compares with 44 per cent having parental restrictions on their home computers and laptops while 84 per cent of children’s home computers had anti-virus software.
Despite it being increasingly possible to access the same content on their mobile phones as their home computers, it seems the same care isn’t applied to mobile phones.
In fact, 46 per cent of parents just aren’t aware of the necessary controls to protect children’s mobiles.
The study, compiled by YouGov looked into the mobile web behaviour of 8 -15 year-olds in the UK.
It found that one-in-five, or 21 per cent of children have accessed inappropriate websites via their mobile phone, rising to a third of 14-15 year-olds.