Symantec Uncovers 90 Million "Teachable Moments" With OnlineFamily.Norton
CUPERTINO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/10/09 -- During summer vacation, kids have more time
to spend online chatting with friends, playing online games, and just
surfing the Web. But this added time on the Internet can lead to trouble
if parents don't have "The Talk"
with their kids about appropriate and inappropriate online behavior.
Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) has identified the top searches conducted by kids
online this summer through its family safety service, OnlineFamily.Norton,* and some
of the results may surprise parents and leave them asking "Who is Fred?"
Symantec also uncovered 90 million "teachable moments" through
OnlineFamily.Norton, which are opportunities for parents to start a
dialogue with their kids about their online activity. These teachable
moments occur when parents are informed by OnlineFamily.Norton that a house
Internet rule is being broken, like kids visiting a restricted website,
entering a false age on a social networking site, or going over their time
limit on the computer.
According to OnlineFamily.Norton, kids' top
100 search terms include sites like YouTube, eBay and Craigslist, as well
as social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The words "sex" and
"porn" also made it to the top, ranking number four and six respectively.
Number nine on the list was "fred," for Fred Figglehorn, a popular
fictional character whose YouTube channel has become a hit among kids.
Other popular search terms include Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Taylor
Swift, and the Black Eyed Peas' song "Boom Boom Pow." To see the top 100
on the list and get insight into what kids are looking for online, visit
http://onlinefamilyinfo.norton.com/articles/schools_out.php.
Since its launch in April 2009, OnlineFamily.Norton has provided parents
using the service with more than 90 million "teachable moments" with their
kids. By blocking attempts to visit "bad" Web sites or chat with IM
buddies and alerting parents to these activities in real-time,
OnlineFamily.Norton has given parents millions of opportunities to have
"The Talk" about the bits and the bytes, as well as appropriate online
behavior, with their children.
