Concerns that North East parents aren't checking kids online activity
A study by Get Safe Online found a third of North East parents don't have any parental controls in place on their child's devices.
A third of parents in the North East don't have any parental controls in place on their children's devices.
A study by Get Safe Online has spoke to 1000 UK parents with children aged between 4 and 18-years-old about time their kids spend online.
Four in ten parents said they felt their children would be safer playing outside than online, but many had few restrictions in place to monitor their online activity.
It's as the summer holidays get underway, and parents are expecting children to spend increased amounts of time on their devices and games like Pokemon Go.
Tony Neate, CEO of Get Safe Online, said: “Technology is now a given for children, but the online world changes so fast - we’ve seen that over the last few weeks with the mass uptake of Pokémon GO which now brings the online world into physical environments and a whole new set of risks.
"Our children are growing up to be extraordinarily tech-savvy which does make it difficult for parents to keep control of what they are doing online.
"And we can see that many are worried about the risks their kids face when they are browsing, playing games and watching content on computers and other devices.
"Last year, Ofcom found that over half of 3-4 year olds and three-quarters of 12-15 year olds were using tablets."
DC Jonathan Stoker from Durham Police's Digital Investigation Team said: "When you're out of the room and your child is online, having parental controls are essential to protect that child.
"To make sure there's no adult pop-ups on the screen or there's no links that the child is going to click on that might take them away from that website.
"Sometimes parents do put a lot of trust in technology and that the technology will look after their children or look after their children.
"There's some really easy straightforward things that parents can do.
"Google is a great place to look and so is Youtube.
"We do recommend that if you're not sure about something, Google it!"