Youth Internet Safety Survey

The Youth Internet Safety Survey was a series of two surveys conducted in the United States in 1999 and 2004. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) provided funding to Dr. David Finkelhor, Director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, to conduct a research survey in 1999 on Internet victimization of youth. His research was cited by the United States Department of Justice as "the best profile of this problem to date".

Crimes Against Children Research Center staff interviewed a nationally representative sample youth, aged 10 to 17, who used the Internet regularly. There were 1501 subjects in the first survey in 1999, and 1500 in the second survey in 2005.

Results from the surveys have been quoted in support of the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006, saying that "one in five children had received an unwanted online solicitation of a sexual nature". This is a reference to the 19% found in the first survey (see "First Survey" below). This is potentially misleading, since some have interpreted this as implying adults soliciting offline sexual contact from children. The 19% includes solicitation from minors to minors, and are not generally requests for physical/"offline" contact. The same survey found that none of the solicitations led to an actual sexual contact or assault.

The more complete results and recommendations are included below.