Half of children say they 'spend too much time online'.
30% of children surveyed by CyberSafeKids as part of Safer Internet Day said they can 'go online whenever they want'.
In the poll of 1,600 children aged between 8 and 12 years old, 22% said they had seen something online in the last year that they 'wouldn't want their parents to know about'.
CyberSafeKids and the National Parents Council have launched a #SameRulesApply campaign to help children and parents better understand the impact of online bullying.
CEO, CyberSafeKids, Alex Cooney, said parents need to be aware of the risks children can be exposed to online if they're unsupervised.
"Our main concern is around unsupervised access - in places like bedrooms, with doors shut; this can leave them vulnerable to stumbling across highly inappropriate content or being contacted by strangers - in a place that should be safe and protected.
"Worryingly, only 18% of the 8-12 yr olds surveyed said they 'weren't allowed devices in their bedroom".
Dr. Colman Noctor, Child & Adolescent Psychoanalytical Psychotherapist, said the same caution should apply to allowing children into online spaces, as in physical spaces.
"The irony of today's world is that our physical communities have never been smaller and our virtual communities have never been bigger.
"We feel anxious about our 13-year-olds using public transport but we feel ok about giving them an unregulated portal to the outside world.
"We need to pay more attention to our children’s online world and teach them how to navigate the online world safely.”
