The study was an initiative of Mijn Kind Online and KPN, the biggest Dutch internet provider, and carried out by Rutgers Nisso groep. The teenagers that participated in the study (of an average age of 16) filled out an online questionnaire on blogging sites. All of them were heavy internet users (with an average of 3 hours spent online per day).

In the past six months, a large majority of the teens had flirted on the net (82% of the boys and 73% of the girls). One out of four boys and one out of five girls reported to have had cybersex.

During the last year, more than half of the boys (57%) and almost half of the girls (42%) had had a date in ‘real life’ with an online acquaintance. In the same period, 40% of the boys and 57% of the girls were asked to undress in front of the webcam or to undertake a sexual activity. Two thirds of the boys and nine out of ten girls declined. Those who accepted did so because they liked it or because they thought it was exciting. This was more applicable to boys than to girls.

62% of girls and 13% of boys did not like receiving a sexually oriented question or image. However, they did not feel that they had been exposed to something negative. Apparently teenagers can deal with such situations with ease. Anonymity on the internet increases the possibility of negative experiences but at the same time they are apprehended as less negative than real life events.