By natural progression, kids in most cases will get the better of their parents, which include covering up their online traces in the digital world, a new study showed.

According to The Daily Telegraph, many Australian children were well aware that their online interactions were being secretly monitored by their parents and appeared to have devised ways that would cloak things they dread to be discovered.

Citing a report by online security firm McAfee, The Telegraph said six out of 10 Aussie kids have successfully outsmarted their folks in online tactics, enabling them to be at least one-step ahead of their supposed web guardians.

And such reality seems fully grasped by many parents, McAfee researchers said, though for self-declared cyber-mum Alex Merton-McCann, the trend was but expected and not troubling at all.

Kids, to begin with, enjoy a great amount of headstart in learning newer technologies and parents will do well, according to Merton-McCann, if they begin to play catch up and learn more of the advantages of the internet.

She admitted that parents seem to automatically paint the net in grim images with valid concerns that "cyber-bullying and stalking and that their children are accessing the wrong things."

Yet instead of fretting helplessly about the evils of online activities, parents, Merton-McCann said, can use the net to their advantages such as the reach provided by social media websites like Facebook that before was not available to parents.

"I like that with a few minutes on my 13-year-old son's Facebook page, I can get a feel for what's going on in his world," the mother of four told The Telegraph in sharing the results of her effort to be integrated with the cyber world that has lately dominated the lives of her children.

"The digital world is such a big part of their life these days ... but if you minimise the risks and educate your kids it can be such a phenomenal place to share with your children," Merton-McCann acknowledged, adding that she's gradually learning on the ins and outs of the net and has become confident of setting definite rules that her kids will have to observe while living their lives online.

The rules, she stressed, were governed by mutual respect and her kids seem to appreciate her pledge not stalk on them on Facebook so long as they include her on their list of friends.

"Parents still have to play a key role in reminding (children) that the rules are the same online," that is they need to watch their manners and respect others as they expect others to respect them, Merton-McCann said.

Associate Professor Jane Burns, chief executive of Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre, has affirmed that accepting the truth about the internet edge of youngsters would not in any way diminish the stature of parents.

"Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents ... (but) there is a great capacity for them to be a teacher for you," Burns was reported by The Telegraph as saying.

Notwithstanding that fact, parents, he added, should not be intimidated and instead should muster the courage to ask for assistance when necessary, which is possible with the correct attitude and rapport.

And a good start is to accept that "technology is now so embedded in children's lives that they don't differentiate between online and offline worlds," the professor suggested.

"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older," she added.