15 percent of Israeli teens surf Internet porn sites

Fifteen percent of Israeli teenagers admit that they frequently visit pornographic websites, a Haifa University research project investigating teenager's reasons for surfing the Internet revealed.

Dr. Gustavo Mesch of Haifa University's Sociology and Anthropology Department says that teenagers who surfed pornographic websites tend to be more verbally and physically violent to their classmates.

The poll questioned 987 teenagers from the ages of 12 to 18 took by having them fill out a survey regarding their surfing habits and the frequency of their visits to different types of sites.

According to Dr. Mesch, teenagers surfing the Internet in search of pornography constitute a smaller percentage than teenagers surfing the Internet for other reasons. 64 percent of teenagers, for example, stated that they search the web in order to communicate with others on-line; 66.4 percent said that they use the internet to find research information on different topics; 77.3 percent use it to listen to or download music; 26 percent use it to develop their computer skills.

Dr. Mesch stated that the study's findings prove that the public hysteria surrounding the dangers of Internet use is not necessarily legitimate.