On Another IT Forum: "Kids are searching for sex online, get over it"

Link: Kids are searching for sex online, get over it - Search Engine Optimization News Story

Admittedly this article was not written from the education environment perspective but the inclusion of passages like that below is enough cause to cause concern:

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...7 year olds were looking for p0rn...

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[spelling of last word adjusted to prevent false positives on ISP filtering]

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I do agree that finding p0rn sitting alongside Games, Club Penguin and YouTube is rather disconcerting in the 7 and under age group though and would suggest that this does not suggest kids are growing up earlier just that peer pressure and celebrity/media coverage of sex has meant that kids are more likely to get exposed to the word 'p0rn' at a much younger age.

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Kids’ Top 100 Searches of 2009

Not hugely shocked or surprised however horrible it sounds. Kids will always look for danger and the "wrong" - or of course they will always just be curious.

And yeah, they are being exposed to the word "porn" early. Some places are teaching the basics of sex education at 4 years old. Perhaps it's the earlier education part of it that could be a contributing factor too.

It's even more reason though for us folks to be more careful and for parents to be more vigilant. After all, the internet is the world at your fingertips - anything you could ever want to know. 20 years ago, a child of that age certainly wouldn't be walking into a library and looking for naked pictures. Technology is moving on and protection from certain subjects has to move with it.