The survey, which itself was conducted online, shows that nearly half of all adults would undergo life-saving robotic surgery conducted via the Internet by an overseas surgeon, and a majority of adults said they would support the use of electronic tracking units on children, up to age 12, so that parents could monitor their whereabouts when they are away from home.

The survey results highlight an increasing American reliance and trust in the Internet for a wide variety of tasks. What has for several years now been trusted for such activities as shopping, research, bill-paying and banking is now becoming trusted for serious jobs and research that have dramatic importance in the lives of Americans.

This survey itself was conducted online, using Zogby's proven Interactive methodology that has been under development for 11 years. The survey, using a random sampling from Zogby's Interactive polling panel, included 3,030 respondents and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.8 percentage points, was conducted May 29-June 1, 2009. Nationally, 84% of adults have Internet access, including more than 90% of likely voters - likely a reason that many Americans are now more accepting of the Internet to do a growing variety of tasks.

In this age of nationwide Amber Alerts and regular news reports of child abductions, a slight majority - 52% - said they would approve of geographic tracking devices attached to children, under the age of 12, if those devices transmitted signals to a password-protected website that the parents could monitor. Another 40% were opposed to the idea, while eight percent said they were unsure.

Women were slightly more likely than men to approve of such a device, as 55% of women and 51% of men favored use of such a device.

Interestingly, the older the respondent, the more likely they were to support the use of such a tracking device. Among those 18 to 24 years old, just 35% said they would favor the use of such technology, but 56% of those 55 to 69 years old and 59% of those 70 years of age and older favored using such equipment.

Ideologically, liberals were more likely to approve of the device than conservatives, by a 54% to 45% margin. But political moderates - who usually split the differences between the ideological poles in opinion surveys - are instead taking a stand in favor of this technology, as 61% said they would approve of tracking the whereabouts of children over the Internet.

Interestingly, those without minor children living in their household were slightly more likely to support the tracking devices than those with kids living at home.

Online Surgery

By an almost two-to-one margin, respondents to the Zogby survey said they would go ahead with a life-saving surgical procedure, even knowing it would be conducted by a robot commanded over the Internet by a surgeon located somewhere overseas. While 45% said they would go forward with the procedure under such circumstances, 24% said they would not. Another 32% were unsure.

On this question, younger respondents were more likely to favor the surgery, compared to older counterparts. Those 25 to 34 years of age were most willing, with 55% saying they would have the procedure, followed 48% of those 18 to 24 years old who said the same thing. Among those respondents ages 55 to 69, 42% said they would have the work done, while 38% of those 70 years of age and older would go under the knife in such circumstances.

Those with college degrees were more likely than those without to agree to the surgery - 51% with degrees would have the procedure, while 40% of those without would do the same. A similar gap emerges among the genders - 50% of men would have the Internet surgery, while just 40% of women would do so.

For a methodology statement on this poll, please visit:
http://www.zogby.com/methodology/readmeth.cfm?ID=1400