Parents Need to be Aware of Children's Web Ways

With school back in session, parents may need to be schooled on what their children are doing on the Internet.

KYW's Kim Glovas reports experts believe risky behavior seems to escalate as high school and middle school students enter social networking sites.

Elizabeth Dowdell, associate professor in Villanova's College of Nursing has researched the issue and said high school students are most at risk, especially of meeting Internet strangers.

Listen to the full interview:

"A third of the sample who met a stranger offline, something sexual happened, and then for ten percent, they reported a vicitimization. In middle schoolp opulation, we saw less children meeting strangers offline, but we also found ten percent reported victimization."

Dowdell said the key to children's safety is parental intervention. She said parents should treat the Internet just like teaching a child to drive. There are rules and the child should not be able to get onto the Internet without parents having all the passwords to Facebook or MySpace accounts, cell phones, and email.