Internet safety report

Concentrating purely on web filtering to keep kids safe online is a bit like looking for your keys under a lamp post because, although you lost them somewhere else, it’s lighter there. A third of children in Europe access the internet from a mobile device, according a new report:

33 % of 9 to 16 year-olds who go online say they do so using a mobile phone or other handheld device.

"two young girls laughing behind another girl's back" by Karin Vlietstra, zalouk webdesignThe report provides an interesting round-up of the different e-safety approaches as far as ISPs are concerned, but notes that the market has failed both in terms of providing protection measures and quality content:

Benchmarking of parental controls shows that most tools are only effective in English. New devices raise further problems: there are not many tools suitable for game consoles, tablets and mobile phones – the devices increasingly used by children to go online - and there are no solutions for users who access content on mobile phones or tablets using an application and
not a browser.

At the same time, there is not enough quality content available. According to a pan-European survey15, only 32% of 9-12 year olds feel that there are enough "good things for kids" of their age to do online.

Can youngsters look after themselves? It would seem that their ICT skills in this regard are seriously lacking. Here’s another extract from the report:

While by 2015 it is expected that 90% of jobs across all sectors will require tech skills, only 25% of young people across the EU self-report having "high" levels of basic internet skills
(such as use the Internet to make phone calls, create a web page, use peer-to-peer file sharing). Research shows that there is a serious digital skills deficit amongst Europe's children, despite the popular view that they are "digital natives". For example, 38 % of 9-12
year-olds in Europe who use the internet report that they have a personal profile on a social networking site. However, only 56 % of 11-12 year-olds say they know how to change their privacy settings. Research also found that the range of digital skills and online activities are linked. Therefore, developing safety skills may encourage other skills associated with other online activities.

The report is structured around…

four main ‘pillars’ that mutually reinforce each other; stimulating quality content online for young people; stepping up awareness and
empowerment; creating a safe environment for children online; and fighting against child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation. It proposes a series of actions to be
undertaken by the Commission, Member States and the whole industry value chain.

It aims to create an EU-wide framework for e-safety, and to encourage industry to do more to provide engaging content online specifically designed for children of different ages. There’s a useful summary of its recommendations at the back of the report.

More information about the report, with download links, may be found on the Safer Internet website, on the page entitled Policy: Making a Better Internet for Children.

Related articles

• Do you know what your child is looking at on the internet? (telegraph.co.uk)
• E-Safety From A Self-Management Perspective (ictineducation.org)
• Internet safety: 10 Greater Manchester children report being bullied on Facebook every day (menmedia.co.uk)

Comments

[Alan]

Nice post and I like your lamppost analogy. I have concerns about the approach which I wrote a short blog on here - http://www.esafety-adviser.com/blog/2012/03/05/online-safety-accreditation-for-schools/

One size doesn't fit all, and these "filter and teach all the kids" approaches are badly flawed. Happy to be proven wrong, it's early days and only time will tell.

[E Greene]

I find your post very thought provoking. I live in a very small community. My school and its policy makers are debating whether or not to allow open access to students on our school compounds. I agree that maybe we (as I include myself by default) are really short sighted in our views. Almost every student at my school has a hand-held device with internet access. Almost all students have Facebook account and has open access either at home or from an internet cafe, public eating place or library. What we should be concerned with is teaching our students responsibility rather than even considering censorship. We must start to teach then proper use. We must empower them with skills to make wise decisions in as far as what they view, comment on or allow access to. They should be taught what is inappropriate cyber behavior. Many of my students have not yet appreciated the value of cyber privacy. Rather than restricting access, educators should teach them proper and appropriate use of one of the most wonderful tools our generation has seen.
E Jonah Greene

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

I totally agree, Jonah. I think that if a school's responsibility is to enable kids to thrive and survive in the big wide world, it has to deal with the realities of life, not try to shut them out. I realise it's all a matter of degree, but as a general principle I don't see how any other approach can, ultimately, be justified.