UK kids shopping online behind parents' backs

One in five under-16-year-olds are raiding their parents' purses without their knowledge to shop online - landing unwary relatives with a potential shopping bill of £191m per year.

According to a survey of 500 adults and 500 children by insurance services company CPP, 15-year-olds are the worst offenders with most kids spending £25 per illicit purchase.

A small proportion are even more profligate however: five per cent of kids surveyed claim they spend between £75 and £150 a throw.

Seventy per cent of the children interviewed said they know where their parents shop and 20 per cent claim to know their passwords and usernames at those sites.

It seems parents are largely in the dark when it comes to their kids' clandestine shopping habits: just one in six parents surveyed believes their children have access to their card details and only two per cent think their kids are able to make purchases without parental permission.

The survey found three-quarters of under-16s say they have complete freedom to make purchases on the web.

Children in Cardiff appear to be the most adept at spending their parents' money online without permission. Twenty-nine per cent of under-16s in the city shop online without parental permission and 30 per cent know their parents' log-in details on shopping sites.

According to payments body Apacs, card-not-present fraud rose by 37 per cent year on year in 2007 and has risen by 298 per cent since 2000.