Four Out of Five Kids Get Inappropriate Spam Daily Symantec Corp., in a new study, announced that more than 80 percent of children surveyed who use email receive inappropriate spam on a
daily basis. In addition, half of the kids surveyed reported feeling uncomfortable and offended when seeing improper email content. The survey interviewed 1,000 youths between the ages of seven and
18.
When asked what kind of spam emails they have received:
80 percent of the respondents said they are bombarded by sweepstakes messages such as "win a Playstation" 62 percent have
received relationship-related spam such as "meet singles online" 61 percent have seen finance-related spam offering cut-rate mortgages or homes for sale, 55 percent have read weight-loss
messages such as "lose 15 pounds in two days" 51 percent have received pharmaceutical sales pitches such as "buy herbal Viagra online" 47 percent have received emails with links to
X-rated Web sites Most importantly, about one in every five kids (21 percent) open and read spam emails, especially the ones with a subject line that interest them (16 percent).
When asked
what their reactions have been when they see improper email content:
51 percent of the respondents said that they have felt annoyed 34 percent have felt uncomfortable 23 percent
have felt offended 13 percent have felt curious. Although 89 percent of the kids surveyed responded that they have heard of spam, nearly one in three still do not know whether spam is
good or bad for them.
The findings show that:
76 percent of the kids studied have one or more email accounts. When asked how often, 72 percent of the respondents said they check
emails a few times a week to a few times a day. 16 percent said they don't want their parents to check their emails with them. When asked the number of hours they use the Internet:
44 percent of youths said that they spend an average of more than two hours a day online on a summer day 23 percent who said they spend as much time online on a school day. Of the
youths who spend an average of more than two hours a day online during summer, 75 percent mainly use the Internet to send and receive emails. You can find out more here.