Safer Internet Day aims to tackle children's online behaviour

The ninth annual global Safer Internet Day has kicked off with a variety of initiatives to help people, especially children, stay safe online.

Not surprisingly the statistics that come out of this annual Safer Internet Day started by the European Union in 2004, show that there are still age-old problems to be tackled.

For example, children know more about technology and the internet then their parents and, while recent research by Safer Internet in the UK has found that two-thirds (68 per cent) of children say their parents always know what they are doing online, other studies continue to paint a bleaker picture.

Research involving more than 1,500 10 to 12 year-olds in the London area recently conducted by the worldwide initiative, Safe and Secure Online programme (ISC)², found that "a significant number are putting themselves in physical danger, as 10 per cent admitted they have met an online friend in person, with 28 per cent of them going to meet the friend on their own." This is hardly something that would be done with a parent's consent or knowledge.

The organisation also confirmed a widespread flouting of age limits by children. It found that 63 per cent of the 10 to 12-year-olds in the research used social networking site Facebook, despite the requirement to be at least 13 years old to join. Meanwhile, despite age ratings, seven in 10 under-age children play games rated for 18-year-olds.

Tim Wilson, who works as a security advisor for the NHS and is a member of ISC², told us that often parents are complicit in this behaviour; failing to realise the content of these games, setting up a Facebook page for them and not knowing what their children get up to online.

He and other ISC² members in the UK are visiting 19 schools around the country to tackle the uninhibited online attitudes that leave children increasingly vulnerable to cyber bullying, abusive gamers, identity theft and malicious threats.

He said the key to protecting children is to get them ‘young' before bad habits set in.

"We started our programmes with the older age groups of 11 to 14 years old but they are often set in their behaviour. We can make a difference here but over the last two to three years we have also been working with younger children in primary schools.

"We are now beginning to see the benefits of targeting these age groups, who grow up with the safe messages," he told us.