One in five teen surfers falls prey to paedophiles

Children, particularly teenagers, who browse Internet regularly, are falling prey to paedophiles. According to recent survey by International Telecommunication Union [ITU], over 60 per cent of children and teenagers talk in chat rooms on a daily basis. Three in four children on-line are sharing the information about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services. And one in five children are being targeted by a predator or paedophile each year.

Teenager from 14 to 18 years are the worst affected due to large usage of community sites like Orkut, Face book ,Hi5, Beebo, MySpace and many more. "Even bullying has become a common phenomenon in cyber space with nearly 72 percent of teens reporting at least one incident of cyber bullying every month. Most of the bullied teens don't tell their parents about the on-line incidents. They try to deal with the problem on their own with a fear of parental restrictions on Net use. This some times leads to social mishaps, sometimes with tragic consequences," said Mr Suraj Prasad Agarwal, President, Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

"Because of the generation gap in electronic communication, however, parents and educators need to better understand both the positive and negative functions of teen on-line behaviour. Websites that give such dangerous information to children can cause much harm, and while such sites have to be regulated, parents should be alerted about what children are doing in their free time," added Mr Agarwal.

To combat with the increasing number of such cases the ITU's Child On-line Protection (COP) initiative is in line with its mandate to establish the foundations for a safe and secure cyber world for future generations and in this view a seminar is organised in city on Sunday to celebrate the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Every year a specific theme is chosen to celebrate this day and this year because of the importance and urgency for preventive measures for children and teenager from cyberspace the theme is, "Protecting Children in Cyberspace".

"To ensure that children and teenagers can safely access the net and its valuable resources without fear of falling prey to unscrupulous predators in cyber space this seminar is being organised. The seminar discussions are meant for ICT professionals, sociologists, lawyers, parents, students, teenagers and law-makers and enforcers."