"We didn't pay a great deal of attention to the security side of the Internet when it was first being designed because we didn't really know if it would work at all, " Cerf said in the keynote address at Georgia Tech's annual security summit.

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"Parents must realise that technology alone can't keep children safe online, " Deborah Preston, the company's internet security advocate.

BBC: Child safety measures to protect against internet threats

In the early days of his research, Cerf said, he worked on a more secure version of his networking protocol for the National Security Agency, but wasn't able to implement that technology in what would become the public Internet.

FORBES: Made For Hacking