Online Safety: Do we Police or Educate?

While technology has made the learning process a lot more interactive and engaging, having access to the internet brings about a host of new challenges for young people.

 

In November 2008, it was estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide were online, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) expects the figure to reach 2 billion—with many of them children and students—at the close of 2010.

 

In a survey called Growing up with Media¹ back in 2007, 25 percent of the 1588 young people aged between 10 and 15 years surveyed had been the victim of either internet harassment or unwanted sexual solicitation.

 

Hamadoun Toure, ITU Secretary-General, warned, “In the march towards creating knowledge economies we must not lose sight of the most vulnerable users of the internet.”

 

Stuart Strathdee, Chief Security Advisor, Microsoft Australia, concurs, “Whilst the digital world has expanded children’s information sources from primarily a local or regional view to a more global one, this has also increased their access to appropriate and inappropriate content.

 

“Children face many dangers online, ranging from being exposed to inappropriate information or images, right through to their information disclosure leading to real world safety issues,” he adds.

 

To keep children safe not just from online sexual grooming but from issues like cyberbullying and disclosing too much personal information—they have to own the agenda themselves, says Sangeet Bhullar, Executive Director of WISE KIDS, a UK not for profit organisation providing training programmes and consultancy to promote digital literacy.

 

Terry O’Brien, Policy Project Leader of the Digital Education Revolution, New South Wales Government (DERNSW), agrees, “The focus is on young people as stakeholders in positive and safe internet use.”

According to O’Brien and Bhullar, young people have to be taught what it means to be a good digital citizen so that their behaviour in the virtual world can be shaped online behaviour should be no different to real life. “The internet is just an extension of the real world, with real world consequences,” Bhullar says.

Strathdee agrees, “It’s not just about something happening in a virtual setting. Many times we have seen situations where online activities have led to real world consequences. Protecting people online has tangible results in the non-digital world.”

 

Yet, educating children and cultivating awareness about the dangers is only the start.

 

“Younger internet users tend to feel they are immune to these dangers. ‘It won’t happen to me’ is a common line of thought,” says Angeline Khoo, Associate Professor at National Institute of Education Singapore.

 

“Knowledge alone does not translate into safer behaviours. They have to perceive it as their problem rather than just a paranoid concern of adults.

 

“Any effort to help them must take place in the online environment and with youth engaged,” she says.

Strathdee says that partnerships between industry and government have worked, and cites the Think-U-Know programme, designed by the Australian Federal Police and Microsoft, as an example.

 

“One of the key strengths of the Think-U-Know programme is the way it uses technology to deliver different types of content to the many different audience groups.

 

“Now, sessions are even being delivered by videoconferencing technology to overcome the geographical issues which are so prevalent across Australia.”

 

For the programme, feedback from teachers, principals, parents and kids has all been “overwhelmingly positive”, says Strathdee.

 

“It is a clear example of how government and private industry experts can work together to produce tangible results in protecting our kids.”

 

While youths have to grab a hold of the agenda themselves, Strathdee says education and parent or guardian involvement is key to providing freedom and safety.

 

Bhullar says every stakeholder has to be involved and educated. To her, it is about getting the ownership of the agenda into the system.

 

“Instead of government saying you need to do this, it is for government to steer and provide the framework for cooperation to make sure that internet safety is a priority and all the stakeholders can collaborate and look at the issue collectively,” she says.

 

Bullar cites the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) as an example to learn from. The council unites more than 100 organisations from both the public and private sectors, including key industry stakeholders like Facebook, Microsoft, child protection professionals and educators, to deliver the recommendations from Dr. Tanya Byron, a psychologist and Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Edge Hill University.

 

“Under the UKCCIS, an agenda is created that says despite the different interests of the industry players, let us look at internet safety in a broad way. We need to do that to tackle problems from a number of angles,” says Bhullar.

 

This is also the approach ITU’s Child Online Protection (COP) initiative’s action phase is taking. With partners from all sectors of the international community, ITU will draw together members of existing initiatives to provide guidance for stakeholders of “every shape and size related to both capacity-building and awareness raising and foster cooperation and collaborative thinking between all those involved in the provision of services to children and young people”.

 

Bhullar, Strathdee and Khoo all have ideas for educating youths on online safety. Bhullar and Strathdee believe that internet filtering is a must.

 

While the debate for internet filtering has been going on for a long time, especially in Australia, Strathdee believes that “the use of search providers’ family friendly site settings is the first step which needs to be used”.

 

“This should be combined with other family friendly options which are offered by ISPs or possibly by the use of other applications which can restrict searchable content.”

 

Khoo has innovative ideas to offer. She says that one way to engage young people is through online activities like gaming. “Youths may listen more to their guild leaders than adults who are not gamers. Discussion on healthy gaming can be facilitated by these peer leaders,” says Khoo.

 

“Students learn better in the online environment. Training in the cyber world provides better opportunities and the social context is appropriate. You capture the ‘teachable moment’.”

 

She illustrates her idea with this example: If a gamer acts aggressively and bullies another one with name-calling, gamers online can intervene and comment on that behaviour. “This will have more impact if comments came from the gamer’s community (his clan or guild). Also the response is immediate and relevant,” Khoo says.

 

There are many things that can be done to restrict children’s access to the internet—filters can be mounted internationally, parents will watch over internet use, educators can shy away from ‘building a knowledge economy’ and industry players could simply not make anything for these young people.

Yet as Bhullar says, “Internet safety should not be about taking away risks but about teaching children to be resilient and educating young people for life.”