An unsettling study out of the UK has revealed that one in four children are being exposed to pornography, one in 20 to webcam contact with strangers, and one in 10 to cyberbullying. Perhaps even more surprising is that over 60 percent of surveyed children report lying to their parents about their online actions, and over 50 percent actively hide traces of their browsing history.

The report, conducted by UK broadband provider TalkTalk, underscores the dramatic discrepancy between the activities of children online and their parents and caregivers’ perception of it. Even parents who try to keep an eye on their children’s surfing might be thwarted by advanced in browser technology.

“Not only can children manually delete their browsing history, but browsers are being built with zero-history modes,” explained Robin Wark, father of two and the author of ParetoLogic’s PGsurfer Block Watch child safety blog. Internet Explorer 8’s InPrivate mode and Chrome’s Incognito mode automatically block any cookies and history, along with the ability for parents to keep an eye on their children’s actions.

ParetoLogic, developers of security and utility software, have created a free parental controls program to help remedy this situation. Their PGsurfer software, released in 2007, allows parents to block an extensive catalogue of ‘blacklisted’ sites, as well as maintain a constant monitor on their child’s actions.