Childrens search habit study reveals adult findings

Social Media

Dan Leahul

August 13, 2009

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1 minute

Childrens' search habit study reveals adult findings

LONDON - The words 'sex' and 'porn' appear in the top ten search terms queried by kids in a new study, which is otherwise dominated by searches for YouTube, Google, Facebook and MySpace, as a new generation of web surfers discover the web through search engines rather than URLs.

Study finds kids prefer search engines or URL bars

According to research by Symantec, kids' top 100 search terms include sites like eBay and Craigslist, as well as a number of social networking sites, child celebrities and several Twilight-related queries.

The words 'sex' and 'porn' made it to the top, ranking number four and six respectively.

Similar x-rated searches also took spots 28 (boobs), 86 (naked girls), 88 (naked) and 89 (nude), among many others.

Number nine on the list was 'Fred' for Fred Figglehorn, a popular fictional character whose YouTube channel has become a hit among kids.

Other popular search terms include Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Club Penguin, Miniclip and Addicting Games.

YouTube appears five separate times on the list in the manifestations 'YouTube', 'You Tube', 'Utube', 'www.youtube.com' and 'YouTube.com'. Six if the search term 'Fred' is included.

The study shows that children are prone to entering URLs into search engines instead of the URL bar itself at the top of the browser.

Surprisingly Google took second spot on the list, along with other search engines, including Yahoo! and Ask.com.

The top ten:

1. YouTube

2. Google

3. Facebook

4. Sex

5. MySpace

6. Porn

7. Yahoo

8. Michael Jackson

9. Fred