Keeping children safer online

Research by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) indicates that around half of all European children have online access in their bedrooms, and a quarter of 12-to-15-year-olds own a tablet. The use of smartphones to send, receive and post photos and videos online is also rising fast across the world, including Africa, according to the ITU […]

Research by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) indicates that around half of all European children have online access in their bedrooms, and a quarter of 12-to-15-year-olds own a tablet. The use of smartphones to send, receive and post photos and videos online is also rising fast across the world, including Africa, according to the ITU research.
But as number of smartphones users soars among children, experts say online safety skills for them have failed to rise at the same rate as their adoption of new applications and devices.
Many below the legal age of 18 are being involved in sexting, bullying, unsolicited explicit content (sex and violence) and sexual approaches from strangers online almost every day. Though this has become routine online dangers modern teenagers face, studies show that adults’ knowledge of what young people are doing online is often vague and complacent.
ITU research also reveals that while 92% of parents say they have established clear rules for children’s online activity, 34% of children say their parents have not. And while 85% of parents surveyed said they knew about parental control software, only 30% had actually installed it.
And even though parents often blithely believe they know enough about the online world to keep their children safe, a 2012 study by Internet security specialist McAfee revealed that four-fifths of teenagers say they know how to hide their online behaviour from parents. This is a dangerous trend that must be addressed, experts say.
“Generally, restricting children’s Internet access is not the answer: one reason children don’t tell parents about abuse is that the typical reaction of parents is to cut off the child’s Internet connection. This can have the counter-productive effect of making children even more secretive about their online activities,” ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré said.
Instead, Dr Toure advocates better education in online safety for parents, teachers, and pupils, starting as young as 5 years old.
He said governments should run workshop sessions to help parents understand the risks and learn about tools that can help them keep their children safer. “During the course of the year ahead ITU also has plans to collaborate with sister agency UNICEF and tech industry partners such as Skype in the Classroom to develop educational lessons for children delivered online,” the ITU scribe said.
Nigeria’s First Lady Patience Jonathan promised to tackle cases of child abuse online especially in Africa. She said she would work with First Ladies across the continent to promote child online safety by setting up, in collaboration ITU, a centre security centre in Abuja to serve as hub where experts would be able to monitor activities of criminals online. She said this last year when she was appointed the Child Online Protection Champion by ITU.
And in order to intensify quest for child safety online,   ITU joined with other UN agencies, NGOs, governments and tech companies around the world last week to celebrate Safer Internet Day, with a special focus on education strategies to promote greater online safety for children and young people.
Under the theme “Creating a better Internet together”, ITU during the celebration championed the work of its Child Online Protection initiative, which offers comprehensive sets of guidelines for children, for parents and teachers, for policy makers, and for the tech industry, in all six official UN languages.
With more smartphones making their way to markets across Nigeria, IT experts say there may be upsurge in child online abuse in the country if government fails to prevent the impending danger.