An online poll by Tufin Technologies and Cumbria Constabulary has found that while 78 percent of school-age children knew hacking was wrong, one in four had tried hacking into Facebook or webmail accounts.

"The most common motive for Facebook hacking was for fun (cited by 46 percent of mini-miscreants), followed by mischief (21 percent)," writes The Register's John Leyden. "One in five hacked in the belief they could make money while five percent went further still and imagined a career on the dark side."

"[Children] from the Lake District county were more likely to try out hacking at a younger age than their big city counterparts, with three in four who admitted to hacking reporting that they did so before their 13th birthday," Leyden writes. "In London, pre-teen hackers numbered just 16 percent of the sample of self-declared wrong 'uns."

Click here to read the article at The Register.