Teens take sexual risks on Internet, U.S. survey finds

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Millions of American teenagers are engaging in risky behavior on the Internet, posting personal information and talking about sex with strangers, according to a national survey released Wednesday by the Polly Klaas Foundation of Petaluma.

"This is a wake-up call for parents," said Glena Records, the foundation's director of communication and education. She warned that "safety lectures are not going to work in the current Internet age."

Teens and tech-savvy predators know more than many parents about cyberspace, both as a global communications medium and as a dark place for criminals to mask their identity and intent, Records said.

With more than 20 million teens using the Internet, the Klaas Foundation commissioned the survey to document their risk of exposure to sexual encounters and abductions by predators.

The foundation identified a number of troubling results from the online poll of 1,468 people, ages 8 to 18:

Teens frequently communicate with someone they have never met via instant messaging, e-mail and chat rooms.

Two in five (42 percent) said they have posted information about themselves on the Internet so others can see it and contact them.

One in four (27 percent) reported talking online about sex with someone he or she had never met in person.

Nearly one in eight teens (12 percent) have learned that someone they were communicating with online was an adult pretending to be younger.

Age deception is a classic ploy by predators, who can find potential victims in their own or any other ZIP code, Records said.

Many sexual predators are skillful at "grooming" victims by befriending them, then asking for pictures and personal information, and ultimately trying to arrange a meeting, Records said.

Teens, meanwhile, are pouring out personal secrets under the false assumption, Records said, that only their friends are looking on.

"If you think of it as an information highway, teens are not driving defensively," Records said.

The Klaas Foundation, formed in 1993 following the abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma, is not alone in its concern over Internet child abuse.

In June, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded more than $13 million in grants to fund Internet Crimes Against Children task forces nationwide.