One in eight European kids upset by Internet content: poll

One in eight European children have been "bothered or upset" by content on the Internet such as sex, bullying or hate speech, according to a survey by the group EU Kids Online.

The organisation polled 23,420 children aged nine to 16 across 25 European Union countries on online risks including pornography, bullying, receiving sexual messages, and face-to-face contacts with strangers.

A quarter of children surveyed in Denmark and Estonia were upset by what they encountered on the web, while 21 percent of children from Romania and Sweden reported the same problems.

Fewer children said they were bothered by what they saw on the Internet in Germany (eight percent), Portugal (seven percent) and Italy (6 percent).

"Most children do not report being bothered or upset by going online," the study stressed.

The survey found that 14 percent of children reported seeing sexual images on the Internent in the previous 12 months and one in three admitted being bothered by what they saw.

Twelve percent of children said they were exposed to hate speech, 11 percent received pro-anorexia messages, seven percent saw drug-related content and five percent saw content about suicide.

The chances of exposure to risky online content are higher for older children: 13 percent for those aged nine to 10, 32 percent for 11 to 12 year olds, 49 percent for 13 to 14 year olds and 61 percent for 15 to 16 year olds.

The study also found that children are surfing the web at ever younger ages: as young as seven in Sweden and eight in other northern European nations.

Across Europe, one third of children nine to 10 years old go online every day, while three-quarters of 15 to 16 year olds surf the Internet.