What are your kids doing online?

Beverley Head
Monday, 12 December 2011 13:34

Your IT - Home IT

A tool which provides parents with a dashboard revealing their offspring's online activities has been released by Trend Micro. The tool can reveal what videos kids are watching, what they've uploaded to social networks, what terms they've searched and what websites they've visited.

Online Guardian for Families runs on Windows PCs only and also lets parents limit time spent online, set profiles for up to five children, and through a child opt-in approach can monitor social network activities no matter what privacy settings have been selected on social networks themselves.

Speaking at the launch, Dr Julian Dooley associate director of the Sellenger Centre for Research in Law at Edith Cowan University, said that a survey that had been conducted in WA found that 14 year old school students typically spent 4-5 hours a day online, more than 85 per cent used Facebook and on average had more than 200 friends.  In addition he said that 70-80 per cent of respondents to the survey said they had been contacted online or via mobile phones more than five times by someone they did not know.

In theory, the bulk of the audience at the launch event which was held at St Ambrose Primary School in Concord West, shouldn't have been on Facebook at all as the years 5 and 6 students at the event were too young to join Facebook which is only officially for users aged 13 and over. But at least half of the audience put their hands up when asked who was on Facebook.

Cathy Young, St Ambrose's principal said that the school was acutely aware of the impact of the internet and that teachers and parents were concerned about how to manage it and ensure that students grew to be 'responsible digital citizens.' The school she said had made social networks a priority issue at present.

Dr Dooley said that a combination of technology and behavioral solutions provided the best opportunity for children to stay safe online.

Trend Micro, which is a sponsor of the Wests Tigers Rugby League team, brought four players along to the school to drive their message home. High profile player Lote Tuquiri was a clear drawcard for the children at the launch, and he explained how he had already had to deal with online problems when someone set up a Facebook page using his name.

A father of two, Mr Tuquiri said that he was aware that online made it easy for people to become 'keyboard warriors' - willing to say something about someone online, where they wouldn't be willing to say it to their face. His advice to children when dealing with their own keyboard warriors was to 'hit the block button.'

Access to Online Guardian costs $49.95 for one year. The tool works with Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr.