Kids as young as eight 'stumbling across' Internet porn, violence

London, July 31 : Kids as young as eight encounter nightmare images of porn, violence and horror on the worldwide web, warn Brit MPs, who insist that the spell of Internet's "dark side" is spreading day-by-day.

According to a Commons report, one in six schoolchildren has seen "nasty, worrying or frightening" content and one in five has faced cyber-bullying.

However, not much is being done by video-sharing sites such as YouTube to prevent kids' exposure to objectionable content like hard porn, rape, bullying and fist-fights.

In addition, there are sites that promote extreme diets and even suicide.

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee said that the industry standard for removing offensive material is 24 hours, which is a "shocking" length of time.

Now MPs have demanded a new self-regulation body to clean up the industry and protect kids from harmful content. They claimed fresh laws would not work as many sites are based overseas.

Committee chairman John Whittingdale said the Internet was a "force for good."

"There is a dark side and many parents are rightly anxious," the Sun quoted him, as saying.

The NSPCC said: "Violent material must be removed from websites as soon as the alarm is raised but companies who run them are failing to do this. Children can easily stumble across these things and are often horrified by what they see. This report strengthens our call for more vigilance."

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham promised to take required action on the report.

ANI