Safety campaigns warning about the dangers of internet paedophilia have led to a reduction in the number of children taking risks online that could place them at risk of abuse, according to a report published today.
Fewer schoolchildren are giving out personal information - including their name, address and phone number - on the internet, and the proportion talking with strangers in chatrooms has fallen by more than a quarter, said the cyberspace research unit (CRU) at the University of Central Lancashire.
Its report, Emerging Trends Among Primary Schoolchildren's Use of the Internet, found that the proportion of children who chat online to people they do not know fell from 40% in 2002 to just 13% last year.
The study found children recognised the importance of safety guidelines when chatting online, with 72% regarding the advice as "very important".
The proportion of children reporting that they had never been told anything about internet safety fell from 10% to just 2%. More than three-quarters of children were aware that they should never meet up with people they only knew online, and 91% were aware they should never give out their phone number or address.
But the director of the CRU, Rachel O'Connell, warned that safety messages were still not getting through to a hardcore of young internet users who are increasingly engaging in risky behaviour, such as meeting with people they befriend online.
The research found that these children spent the most time online but were least aware of safety guidelines.
Ms O'Connell said: "The findings of this study suggest that the users who have lower levels of knowledge also have higher levels of experience of using the internet, spend longer online and also engage in more risky activities.
"These factors are of equal importance to academic ability with regards to education programmes, and those that continue to disregard this place children at increasing risk."
The CRU research found there had been a 15% decrease in the number of children aware that people they talk to in chat rooms may not be who they say they are.
There was a slight increase last year in the proportion of children who met cyber-friends face-to-face, although none went to meetings on their own - compared to 24% in 2002.
The report is being launched today at a CRU conference at the British Library in London, to mark European Internet Safety Day.
The conference will bring together representatives from the police, children's charities and the internet industry to draw up strategies to improve internet safety.
