Survey: kids don't understand on-line dangers

David Heath
Wednesday, 09 June 2010 23:45

Your IT - Home IT

A recent survey by Lonergan Research clearly demonstrates that children are naïve to the dangers they might (and frequently do) experience on the Internet.

Commissioned by gizmo the survey of 1,025 parents and their 8 - 15 year old children demonstrated very clearly that while children generally don't understand the dangers, their parents do; yet many have done nothing to enact effective safety controls.

According to the survey, parents' main concerns for their children are contact with sexually explicit material (89%), being targeted by online predators (86%) and being infected by viruses and spyware (also 86%).

Children, on the other hand, are regularly coming into contact with inappropriate material with around two thirds reporting this.  Yet, just 13% of these children perceive the internet as dangerous.

According to the survey report, "The likelihood of children coming into contact with inappropriate materials increases with age, which corresponds with children's increased confidence in feeling the internet is safe for them as they grow older.  Even though the majority of children are innocent, they are still quite sophisticated and do more than their parents realise online."

- Almost one in three (32%) children have seen images of naked people;
- 29% have seen violent images;
- 29% have played games rated MA15+;
- 29% have been contacted by someone they don't know online;
- 17% have been asked for personal details;
- 14% have been teased or bullied online; and
- 7% have had someone post pictures or videos of them without their permission.

"Almost half (49%) of primary school children know how to engage in illegal activities online, even if they have never done it. This most commonly includes: Downloading music without paying (35%); Giving their friends copied games or songs (29%); Downloading TV shows (27%); Using a neighbour's wireless internet without them knowing (13%)."

This survey makes a clear mockery of Senator Conroy's recently announced "big red button."  The button relies on the child perceiving a threat and choosing to respond, however the survey clearly showed that the children are not particularly bothered by what they see with just 13% perceiving danger on the Internet.

Conversely, the ThinkUKnow program (announced today) offers some very real and practical tools to combat the very issues raised by the gizmo survey.

We recommend parents investigate the ThinkUKnow site and leave the panic button to our favourite panic merchant, The Conscious Pilot.