Kids' Top Searches In 2009: Porn, Sex, YouTube Top The List

According to research by Symantec, "porn", "sex" and "YouTube" were among the most popular search terms queried by kids, ages 18-and-under, in 2009.

The lists were compiled by OnlineFamily.Norton, a service provided by Symantec that helps parents monitor kids' activities online. It examined how the most popular search terms varied by gender, as well as by age.

Here are the top search terms of the year, by age group:

OnlineFamily.Norton notes,

Teens and tweens spend most of their search time online on music related subjects (34% and 27%). Kids under the age of seven spend most of their search time online on games (23%).

The reports includes a list of the 100 most popular search terms among all teens and kids under 18. See the top 20 queries below:

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. Porn
6. YouTube.com
7. Yahoo
8. MySpace
9. eBay
10. You Tube
11. Wikipedia
12. Michael Jackson
13. Taylor Swift
14. Gmail
15. Party in the USA
16. Miley Cyrus
17. Club Penguin
18. Miniclip
19. Fred
20. Games

The most popular search terms, by gender, were as follows:

According to OnlineFamily.Norton, 13 percent of boys searched adult topics, whereas only 2 percent of girls did the same.

CNET explains how Symantec compiled the top terms:

To compile its top 100 list, Symantec tracked 14.6 million searches run by users of its OnlineFamily.Norton service and ranked the terms according to ones submitted most frequently to those submitted the least. The terms were collected anonymously, so none could be associated with any specific children or families.

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Comments

[lockDown]

09:30 PM on 12/21/2009

Kids can access this stuff on their mobile devices. Glad I don't have kids.

[JayDubs]

11:11 AM on 12/21/2009

#12. Michael Jackson

Apparently he really is popular with the children...

Too soon?

[richdibo]

08:14 AM on 12/21/2009

That's not fair! I am envious. Google. Wikipedia. Youtube.

When I was these kids' age the most stimulating passtime was a slinky toy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZL6RGkPjws

[GaryNull]

09:34 PM on 12/20/2009

When I was in junior high, 1974, I remember some kid talking about how
he got to see breasts on the Monty Python show.
That was the big thrill back then, lol.

[blogisti]

06:30 PM on 12/20/2009

Youtube??? Go figure.

[Tulka2]

03:35 PM on 12/20/2009

The kid's computer should be in the family's communal space.

[sunnyokanagan]

03:33 PM on 12/20/2009

At least they're not searching for guns and suicide.

[Oilygarch]

01:07 PM on 12/20/2009

Kids are sexual beings too. And sex being the forbidden fruit for these hormone laden creatures makes matters more enticing to them.

[Tulka2]

03:37 PM on 12/20/2009

I agree. The issue is ultimately one of power. Will we protect children from being used. The first part of a sexual education is being told one's body belongs to oneself and no one should touch it without permission.

[rtb61]

01:09 AM on 12/21/2009

Children are the victims of the marketing they are presented. When their heroes are sexually expressive pseudo rock stars they will attempt to imitate the behaviour. Children are not sexual beings they are investigative and exploratory beings and will explore and seek out what is presented to them, especially when it is presented to them as being both desirable and successful, especially when failure to do so 'will' emphasis on 'will' result in peer persecution and isolation, again driven by the same psychological shaped and designed marketing strategies. Adults, specifically corporate executives, ruthlessly exploiting the minds of gullible and psychologically defenceless children to enhance their bonuses.

[KristianTheConqueror]

03:45 AM on 12/21/2009

While the modern mass media's promotion of highly sexual imagery in an effort to appeal more to adults is most certainly sexualizing young children, I think that it is important to remember than middle and highschoolers are not chaste little angels, but rather sexually developing people. If we forget this, we risk denying them access to the services and education that they require in the realm of sexual education, which figures in to how the Abstinence-only movement is failing to prevent teen pregnancy in such an epic manner.

[jsarets]

01:32 AM on 12/20/2009

Why are kids googling for google? Is our education system that bad?

Well, at least they're not searching for "bomb" or "gun"...

[KristianTheConqueror]

03:47 AM on 12/21/2009

They said 'search term.' I'd guess that a lot of kids didn't have google set as their homepage and just entered it into whatever search engine was their homepage to get to it. Same with facebook and youtube. Just procedural entries to get to the rest of their web content.

[hypnotoad72]

09:29 PM on 12/19/2009

Great list!

Now if only we can get the 7-and-under crowd to google for jiggy like how the older kids do and there you go...

/ducksforcover

[Christina Brown]

04:47 PM on 12/19/2009

Young kids searching for porn online. I am not suprised. God helps us all. lol.

[hypnotoad72]

09:30 PM on 12/19/2009

Well, kiddies hear about it so then they want to know more about it.

The one thing I am shocked about is, why aren't more of them saying "Cooties, GROSS!", or something to that effect...

[Militant Leftist]

09:57 AM on 12/20/2009

My sentiments too. Teens are interested in sex? What groundbreaking research!

[Tulka2]

03:39 PM on 12/20/2009

Yeah. Decades ago, i noticed the most well-worn pages in any communal school dictionary were the ones that contained certain predictable words.

[mindofdemus]

04:47 PM on 12/19/2009

Whatever doubts we may have about the legitimacy of these reports, There is no doubt that the availability and accessibility of the internet poses a serious problem for parents who don't want their children to grow up way too fast and have misconceptions about what sex should be and how to treat each other when they do become sexually active; which is happening way too early on a way too regular basis now-a-days. I take it, those of us posting comments, ridiculing this report, don't have young children. SMH.

[rpr]

01:21 AM on 12/20/2009

Yeah, just like Playboy and Penthouse 30 years ago. Just look what became of the teens from back then! Perverts, all of them!

Now if parents steered their kids' interest to sites that give age-appropriate information about sex to teens... But that won't happen of course.

[BrainDart]

03:10 PM on 12/20/2009

It's what parents model their love and affection for each other that make the lasting impression.

[WilliamTheV]

04:18 PM on 12/19/2009

So a company that sells filtering software determined that kids look up naughty stuff so often, thus necessitating the need (in parents' minds) for their ineffective filtering software (I cracked it when I was 12)

[rpr]

01:31 AM on 12/20/2009

Hacker kids must be really popular these days. You need only one per school to circumvent all the filtering software.
Parents, please have a reasonable conversation with your kids. Tell them that there is bad stuff and bad people out there and that they need to know what is reasonable, age-appropriate info about sexuality and what is plain old porn (or worse.) Your kids aren't dumb but they are curious. Filtering doesn't work. And even if your kids don't manage to circumvent your filter they will get the naughty bits from their buddies on a USB stick.

[D0gb3rt]

11:42 PM on 12/20/2009

It's like drugs, only more uncomfortable for parents and less uncomfortable for kids.

[KristianTheConqueror]

03:53 AM on 12/21/2009

The article just said that this came from monitoring software, not blocking software... But still, the actual blocking software that these guys use is a joke. I remember hacking administrator accounts and cracking open the firewall in highschool to access youtube clips that my teachers wanted to show the class (since all social networking and otherwise 'fun' sites were blocked...)

[WilliamTheV]

01:17 PM on 12/21/2009

did the same here.

[f0rTyLeGz]

03:12 PM on 12/19/2009

Great scare tactics by Symantic... I can imagine the headlines on Drudge, "First graders search for 'sex and porn' study shows!"

[vinny]

02:21 PM on 12/19/2009

well, this should make santa's job a lot easier this year...