So what does sex, porn and Fred have in common? While many could provide an answer not suitable here on Tom's, Symantec's OnlineFamily.Norton service is reporting that those search terms are three out of ten words that kids used most during the February to July time period.
YouTube leads the pack as the #1 search term, followed by Google and Facebook. however, kids are trying to sneak naughty material onto the screen even though the service is tracking and reporting their Internet whereabouts in real time.
The term "sex" ranked fourth in the list, followed by Myspace and Porn. The service reports that Yahoo ranked seventh while Michael Jackson (and his subsequent death) came in the eighth position. Fred, a fictional character that sports a popular YouTube channel, came in ninth, while eBay surprisingly finished off Symantec's top ten.
"I think seeing how dominant the terms 'sex' and 'porn' are, that they come up well within the top 10, doesn't surprise us," said Symantec Internet safety advocate Marian Merritt. "You go down farther in the list, you see words of anatomy like 'boobs,' it almost makes you laugh because we remember what it was like to be a preteen or teen. Parents don't often have context around this sort of thing."
According to CNET, Symantec tracked 3.5 million searches run by registered users of its OnlineFamily.Norton service. Each term appearing on the list had to be entered at least fifty times to qualify.
