A new survey has revealed that watching YouTube videos, looking up 'sex', socialising and searching for search engines are the popular activities children perform on the Internet.
The survey, conducted by computer security firm Symantec, listed the Top 100 searches using the company's tracking service OnlineFamily.Norton, which monitors children''s and teenager's Internet use.
It found that the most popular search term was Google-owned video-sharing hotspot YouTube, where children go for snippets ranging from Japanese anime and viral videos to dance routines and help with maths homework.
"Seeing YouTube on top is no surprise," News.com.au quoted Symantec Internet safety advocate Marian Merritt as saying.
"Kids use YouTube as a starting place for entertainment as well as for education purposes," Merritt said.
Another top search term, 'Fred', refers to YouTube videos of a fictional character popular amongst children.
Searches for 'sex' came in fourth, just ahead of social-networking service MySpace and then 'porn', which was the sixth most common query.
"Any of us who have been teenagers are not surprised kids look for information about sex. I think we have all gotten over our shock that the Internet has porn," Merritt said.
Symantec studied 3.5 million searches made by OnlineFamily.Norton service users worldwide between February and July this year.
The search term had to be submitted at least 50 times to make the list, according to CNet.com.
The online activity monitoring service does not secretly snoop. It announces its presence onscreen, and dispatches animated dog characters to warn children when they are heading for territory set as off-limits by parents.
Merritt sees the service as helping parents stay in tune with children as their lives move increasingly online.
She maintains that real-time online monitoring provides casual chances for parents and children to have 'The Talk' about porn, sex, trusting strangers and other delicate topics.
Merritt said that OnlineFamily.Norton lets parents see what their children were searching, plus "who they are instant messaging with, and what social networks they are on."
Since its launch in April 2009, OnlineFamily.Norton has provided parents using the service with more than 90 million 'teachable moments' with their kids, according to Symantec.
It is being offered free through the remainder of the year, and Symantec has yet to determine what it will charge for the service.
The top 10 children's searches from February to July this year were:
1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. MySpace
6. Porn
7. Yahoo
8. Michael Jackson
9. Fred
10. eBay
Illustration: Uttam Ghosh
