22 December 2009 | Author: Andrew Girdwood Head of Strategy

Software vender's chart shows disturbing search trends from children

Security and parental control software maker Norton has published a list of top searches in 2009 for children under 18, under 12 and under 7. Alarmingly all age groups searched for porn.

Norton's summary of the aggregate chart explains that YouTube, Google and Facebook topped the list but that sex and porn searches made the top five. On average, however, kids spent most of their time in 2009 searching for music (30% of the time) and then for movie/tv related terms (12% of the time).

Michael Jackson was the most popular celebrity and starlet Taylor Swift was in second place. Kids searched for eBay, Walmart and Best Buy among popular retail brands.

Kid's Top 10 Searches of 2009

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. Porn
6. YouTube.com
7. Yahoo
8. MySpace
9. eBay
10. YouTube

Norton, who sells software to help parents regulate what their children are able to view online, split the searches out by gender. YouTube, Google and Facebook remained in the top three searches for both boys and girls. The girls spent nearly twice (42%) of the time searching for music than the boys (22%) but the boys spend more time (13%) on adult terms than girls (2%).

Boys Top 5 Searches of 2009

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. Porn

Girls Top 5 Searches of 2009

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Taylor Swift
5. Sex

In the last analytical split Norton looked the searches children had conducted at an age group level. The security vender used three age groups: teen (13-18), tween (8-12) and 7 & Under.

In this analysis Norton discovered that tweens and teens spent most of their time searching for music but children under the age of seven spent most of their time (23%) searching for games. Norton noted that kids under the age of 7 would search for games at P2P sites such as Limewire and Mininova.

Teen (13-18) Top 5 Searches of 2009

1. YouTube
2. Facebook
3. Google
4. Sex
5. MySpace

Tween (8-12) Top 5 Searches of 2009

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Sex
5. Club Penguin

7 and Under Top 5 Searches of 2009

1. YouTube
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. Porn
5. Club Penguin

For some people the results of the Norton study will be alarming. Are children under the age of 7 really searching for porn that often? Facebook's has a minimum age for sign up that this search trend analysis seems to suggest is being flaunted.

While it is worth keeping in mind Norton sells software to reassure parents that their children will not be able to access inappropriate sites should we ask whether there are inaccuracies, such as automatic virus-fuelled searches or the 'wrong' user being recorded at the PC, that might be responsible for these search trends?