Keeping safe on the internet

This is a long, detailed article. We also have a much shorter summary article about online safety available.

We all want to our children to be safe and free to surf without worry. We take a look at the dangers and how to avoid them.

The Internet is a fantastic place for children. They can find answers to almost any question, chat to people around the world and learn any number of skills of research and literacy. It is a global classroom and playground wrapped into one. Children deserve access to such a great resource and we want to encourage them. But as parents it's inevitable we'll worry. We all have the occasional pang of fear that our child will stumble across images or content of an adult nature that might upset them or be contacted by someone we don't know and who doesn't have their best interests at heart. Of course we can't protect our children from everything in the big bad world and we wouldn't necessarily want to. We know they need to learn and it is our job to help them explore safely. Educating our children to act responsibly and independently must be one of our most important jobs as well as one of the hardest.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Let's say it out loud. Often these worries we have are unspoken and vague, let's spell it out and then we can better address those fears.

Predators

The big one. At some point most parents will have at least a twinge of fear that out there on the internet are people searching for children to groom and to engage with inappropriately. While we can keep an eye on our children in the street and we stop them wandering down dark alleys, we worry that on the internet they can be fooled because they feel the safety of being at home and yet STILL be contacted by a man sitting in a room alone with harmful intentions.

So, we said it. But just how likely is it really? And more to the point, what can we do to avoid nefarious characters online?

According to the Youth Internet Safety Survey (2006) 1 in 7 children encountered unwanted sexual solicitation online. This is an unacceptably high figure. But it is essential to put it in context, very often sexual approaches are from other youths, they are largely experienced by teenagers and may also include general rudeness rather than explicit sexual advances. A potentially even more worrying figure is that 1 in 25 of all youth internet users receive contact in which the solicitor attempted to make contact offline too.

Bullies

Online harassment is on the increase, 9% of all children online are harassed in some way at some point. Nearly half of these attacks or threats take place in chat rooms, with around 1 in 10 being via email. Of real concern is that 28% of children surveyed admitted to making rude or aggressive comments to someone else. It seems our own children may not always be angels either! This kind of nastiness is particularly distressing for children and often spills over from school affecting school work and attainment.

Advertising

We are generally not keen on advertising to our children. Certainly some advertising can be useful, informative and well-targeted, but we think our children could do without the kind of blanket advertising of inappropriate content that one often finds online. Spamming and adverts that appear plastered over email accounts and websites are misjudged at best and disturbing to children at worst. One of the key principles of SAFEnSOUNDmail is that we don't allow any advertising - we think kids get enough in their lives already.

Porn and violence

More than a third of child internet users see sexual material online that they do not want to see. That is a huge figure. One in three of our kids will see something 'adult' which they can't 'unsee'. However, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey only 9% of children said they were actively distressed by what they saw. It’s like that we as parents would be more upset!

Illegal downloads

Recent news reports have highlighted the potentially costly consequences of getting caught out with illegal downloading of music, games and films. Parents may face hefty fines if their children are found file sharing copyrighted material. Getting music for free is hugely tempting but very likely to be illegal, and therefore associated with the risk of prosecution.

Fraud

If they aren't getting themselves into trouble they might just be bankrupting us! Your children giving out your credit card details unwisely could lead to fraudulent use and an unpleasant surprise the next time you check your accounts.

How to keep safe

Now we've faced our worries, what can we do? The Internet is still a fantastically exciting and useful place and being able to surf and email is something our children must learn to do. And they need to learn how to do so safely.

Why not sit down with your children and talk to them about good online habits? Most children respond well if they are engaged with in what they see as a reasonable manner. Here are our suggestions for good online habits, but of course you can adapt them to suit your own children.

Top 10 Good Habits - for kids

Have fun, be smart and stay safe.

Watching over them - for parents

The Internet really is a great place and with just a bit of web awareness it can be a safer place for children and teens to explore.

Our web directory has excellent and appropriate links for children AND some links to useful safety sites for you.

With great thanks to Crimes against Children Research Center and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The Youth Internet Safety Survey - Wolak J, Mitchell K, Finkelhor D. Online victimization: 5 years later. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; 2006. Available at: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV138.pdf.