ABS: 72,000 kids had an internet safety issue last year
The ABS' Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities found 2.7 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 years – about 79 per cent of all kids in Australia – used the internet.
About 3 per cent of those children, or about 72,000, were found to have had some kind of personal safety issue. Of these, an estimated 33,000 accessed inappropriate material, 15,000 experienced bullying or threatening behaviour, and 15,000 had strangers asking them for – or gaining access to – their personal information.
The report found a similar proportion of children who had access to mobile phones (about 3 per cent or 28,000) also experienced some kind of personal safety or security problem. About 841,000 kids between 5 and 14 – or 31 per cent of all children – had access to their own mobile phone, the ABS reported, with 60 per cent of these using their phone primarily to contact family.