Kids spend twenty hours online a week

It may not be a surprise for some parents but according to research conducted by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) children in the UK are spending more than twenty hours per week surfing the internet.

Most of their time is being spent on social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, which it claims means that they are effectively being brought up online. This has prompted these sites to become very attractive to larger media companies such as AOL, Microsoft and News International as they attempt to get a foot hold in the very lucrative youth market.

Clearly there are many fears that children could be brain washed by certain individuals and indeed companies too. With the aged range going from five to fifteen this is widening all of the time and so parents will need to be extra vigilant on what their children are doing. Speaking to friends online is one thing, but a stranger that is a different matter altogether.

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