Digital Smarts - Friends Sexually Harassing Friends Online

A new study led by a Michigan State University (MSU) cybercrime expert Thomas Holt shows that children are not only being targeted by strangers online, but by people close to them as well. Based on the survey results, about one in four children claims to have been pressured by their friends to talk about sex online when they did not want to. The results came from a study conducted on 439 middle school and high school students between the ages of 12 and 16 years. The survey also found that filtering software or keeping the computer in an open space such as the family living room did not seem to reduce the problem. Holt instead recommends keeping up an ongoing conversation between parents and kids about what they are doing online.