Youth and Digital Safety

With the gift giving season behind us, it’s likely we saw the latest hot tech item get into the hands of children of all ages. Whether that item is the latest tablet device, smartphone or game console, every device can offer kids a fun and educational opportunity to interact with the latest new gadgets, but also the ability to communicate with almost anybody around the world.

There are definite benefits these devices provide, but also significant risks, particularly when such devices are being handed to children. In his report “Letting Children be Children,” author Reg Bailey highlights a concern where nearly nine out of 10 parents surveyed agreed that “these days children are under pressure to grow up too quickly.” Invariably, some material available on the internet today gives children access to age-inappropriate information that should be blocked. A key recommendation to help solve this issue is to make it easier for parents to protect their children by blocking online adult and other age-restricted material.

Provision of such controls is one of the key activities of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), an initiative that we at McAfee are fully engaged in and support. However it is important to remember that whilst the provision of such controls is absolutely crucial, they are not the complete answer.

“Child internet safety is increasing in prominence and widening in complexity as the internet becomes more accessible to children,” said Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Tim Loughton. “We want to reduce children’s access to harmful and inappropriate content online and help parents choose what their children can see. Reg Bailey recommended the concept of ‘active choice’ – giving customers a choice at the point of purchase over the content they can access.” Loughton continued, “McAfee have wholly engaged in the drive to deliver active choice to the marketplace and have been a positive leader in creating and offering solutions to the mobile phone, ICT, hardware and retail sectors.”

McAfee recently conducted research and published a report about the online life of teens. The research revealed that there are many teens that simply hide their online lives from their parents:   

• About a third (32%) say that they don’t tell their parents what they are doing online and would change their behaviour if they knew their parents were watching (31%).
• Even though parents are less likely to monitor their children’s behaviour as they get older, young people are more inclined to hide what they do online from their parents as they get older. By the time they reach the ages of 16 or 17, 56% of teens hide their online activities.

Teens can hide online activity by simply minimising browser windows when parents are nearby, hiding or deleting text messages and cleaning out their browser history.  The result of such activities is that parents can become completely unaware of what, or more importantly “who” their children interact with online. When you consider that more than half of the respondents reported to have known someone that has experienced cyberbullying, it’s a rather worrying trend.

 There is no question that many children (and adults) live rich active online lives that come with many benefits. However if you are considering purchasing such devices for children, it’s important to consider the possible risks and look at ways to keep them safe from such threats. This however should not stop with the installation of software and a brief warning about online threats, but continue with ongoing dialogue.  Moreover, such a “dialogue” should also be considered between generations; grandparents, parents and children alike. For more information please refer to the following links:

 http://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/family-safety

 http://us.mcafee.com/en-us/local/docs/lives_of_teens.pdf

 http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

 http://www.getsafeonline.org/

 Link to report by Reg Baily: Letting Children be Children:

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%208078

Tags: Consumer, Family Safety, identity protection, identity protection surveillance, identity theft, mobile security, personal identity theft fraud, proactive identity surveillance, social networking