Thaindian News

London, Apr 20 (ANI): A survey has found that nearly half of nine to 12-year-olds in the UK, who have an Internet profile of their own, are “vulnerable” to grooming and stalkers online.

The poll by the European Commission (EC) found that 43 percent of young people surveyed had an online profile, with the figure rising to 88 percent for those aged 13 and 16.

The survey of 25,000 youngsters across Europe was published by the EUKidsOnline network.

One in ten said they had a public profile - with a fifth of these children displaying their address and/or phone number.

Nine to 12-year-olds were more likely than those aged between 13 and 16 to post personal information in the public domain.

But only half of 11 and 12-year-olds said they knew how to change privacy settings on social networking sites.

Among those aged 13 to 16, British, Belgian, Danish, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish children were likely to have more than 100 contacts.

The commission said the findings confirmed the importance of a review of its deal with major networking sites on safer Internet use.

“Growing numbers of children are on social networking sites but many are not taking all necessary steps to protect themselves,” the Daily Mail quoted Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for the digital agenda, as saying.

“These children are placing themselves in harm’s way, vulnerable to stalkers and groomers.

“All social networking companies should, therefore, immediately make minors’ profiles accessible by default only to their approved list of contacts and out of search engines’ reach.

“Those companies that have not yet signed up to the EU’s safer networking principles should do so without delay so as to ensure our children’s safety,” Kroes said. (ANI)