McAfee, Inc. Research Reveals Mothers Rate Cyber Dangers as High as Drunk Driving or Experimenting With Drugs

About two-thirds of mothers of teens in the United States are just as, or more, concerned about their teenagers' online safety, such as from threatening emails or solicitation by online sexual predators, as they are about drunk driving (62 percent) and experimenting with drugs (65 percent), according to new research released today by Internet security company McAfee, Inc.

This fear is supported by the McAfee study, which revealed that 52 percent of teens have given out personal information to someone online they don't know offline, with 34 percent of online teen girls having given out a photograph or a physical description of themselves to someone they don't know. The biggest hurdle mothers face is keeping track of what their kids do online, as 32 per cent of teens said they have cleared the browser history when they have finished using the computer, and 16 per cent have created private e-mail addresses or social networking profiles to hide what they do online from their parents.

The research conducted by Harris Interactive  for McAfee among more than 1,000 U.S. moms of online teens aged 13-17 and online teens aged 13-17, offers numerous insights into moms' fears and teenagers' behaviors on the Internet.

Key Findings:

• 58% of moms think the government is not doing enough to keep kids safe online
• 32% of teens clear the browser history to hide what they do online from their parents
• 34% of teen girls have given out photos or physical descriptions of themselves to strangers

Source: McAfee Inc.