Spam e-mail is reaching most children: study

Four out of every five children receive inappropriate spam e-mail touting get-rich-quick schemes, loan programs and pornographic materials, according to a study released on Monday by Internet security provider Symantec Corp.

A majority of 1,000 children ages 7 to 18 interviewed for the survey said they felt 'uncomfortable and offended when seeing improper e-mail content.'

"Parents need to educate their children about the dangers of spam and how they can avoid being exposed to offensive content or becoming innocent victims of online fraud," said Steve Cullen, Symantec's senior vice president for consumer products.

One in five children opened and read spam, the study found, and more than half of the them checked e-mail without parental oversight.

Among the other findings in the survey:

• 80 per cent of the respondents said they are bombarded by sweepstakes messages.
• 62 per cent received spam touting dating services.
• 47 per cent received e-mails with links to pornographic Web sites.
• 34 per cent have felt uncomfortable receiving spam.

Symantec commissioned Applied Research, a market research firm, to conduct the study.