Nearly half of Scottish parents are unaware of the dangers of the net

Nearly half of parents in Scotland, 46%, do not believe the net is dangerous for their children and 52% admit they allow children to surf unsupervised.

While 49% feel the net is safe for youngsters to use unattended and 64% have not bothered to install parental control software on their home PCs.

The survey for children's charity NCH coincides with a new safety campaign.

Education gap

The figures revealed there was still a huge gap in educating parents about the dangers posed by the information superhighway.

More parents from Scotland than anywhere else in the UK revealed the reason they did not know how their children could stay safe online was because they did not know where to find the information.

John Carr, internet adviser for NCH, said: "The results of this survey show we still have a long way to go to reach parents and convince them of the dangers of the internet.

"On the other hand a very healthy 80% of Scottish parents say they think internet safety software should be pre-installed on every new computer sold to families so clearly, at another level, parents are looking for solutions."

The new internet safety awareness campaign was launched in conjunction with high street retailer Comet.

Technical advice

The company is holding a nationwide series of in-store seminars offering advice to mothers, fathers and their children about the dangers of using the internet.

Bill Moir, Comet's head of computing, said: "Given the number of terrifying cases just this year of youngsters being lured away from their homes, it's amazing that parents are not exercising more caution when it comes to the internet.

"Children are naturally inquisitive and this curiosity of all things new, when added to a child's naivety, can be deadly."