CINCINNATI, OH (AP) -- One in three teen girls says they have set up in-person meetings with people they met online.
Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital studied over 200 girls between the ages of 14 and 17. Half the girls had been physically or sexually abused in the past year.
30 percent of the girls in the study said they had offline meetings with people they first met on the internet; before the identity of that person had been confirmed.
The girls who had been abused were more likely to create provocative online profiles, and receive online sexual solicitations.
High quality parenting, those who checked what their children were posting and who they communicated with, reduced the number of risky online behaviors. Installing internet filtering software, however, did not.
Lead author Jennie Noll told U.S. News that statistically speaking, the internet is not a dangerous place. She says most "online meetings are benign."
Noll explains that after interacting with someone online for months, a teen may not view that person as a stranger, which has dangerous implications.
Read more about this study from U.S. News.
Do you monitor what you children are doing online?
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