Oz parent-teen gap: Study

A just-released study in Australia found "a huge disconnect between parents and their teenage children over online behaviour," according to its press release. The study - conducted by NetAlert, the Australian government's online-safety body, and Web portal NineMSN.com.au - looked at teen blogging/social networking, "illegal content downloads," and parental supervision of kids' online activity. It found, for example, that…

* 24% of teens claim that their parents are never around when they're online; 6% of parents said they were never around when their kids were online.
* 71% of parents believe their children use the Net for research; 23% of teens say they research online.
* 80% of parents claim they have set ground rules for Internet usage; 69% of teenagers agree that such rules exist.
* 40% of teen respondents said they'd "potentially" meet in person someone they'd "met online"; 12% said they'd get their parents' permission.
* "As many as 63% of teens have "downloaded content from the Internet that they didn't want their parents to know about."
* 50% of parents believe they always know what sites their children visit.
* More than half of parents surveyed claimed that they had better Internet knowledge than their children.