INTERNET
Irish kids score high in Net safety poll
30-05-2003
by Andrew McLindon
Irish children and parents appear to be highly aware of the dangers posed by young people using the Internet.
According to a survey of Internet usage by children aged between nine and 16 in five European countries, the vast majority of Irish children are aware of Internet safety guidelines and most parents have placed rules on their Net usage at home.
The survey found that 83 percent of Irish children knew not to give out their address when on-line and 81 percent were aware that they aren't supposed to arrange to meet a stranger they have come across on the Internet. This was a much higher level of awareness then among children in the other countries studied -- Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
Nearly 70 percent of Irish respondents said that their parents check on them when they are surfing. Most parents seem to also set rules for their offspring's Internet use. In 70 percent of cases, children are not allowed give out personal information, 58 are not allowed to meet someone they met on-line, and 54 percent are not supposed to visit "certain sites." These percentages were all much higher than in the Nordic countries.
In addition, the survey revealed that Irish children have received more Internet safety education at school compared to the children of the other countries.
However, despite this education, supervision and the rules, around 60 percent have been exposed to sexually graphic material. Around 15 percent said they had received unwanted sexual comments over the Internet a "few times," while 10 percent said it had happened "more than five times." Close to 40 percent said they had "accidentally found" sites with "naked people" and 22 percent said they had deliberately visited such sites.
Nearly 30 percent of kids here have also been exposed to violent sites. Six percent said they had seen such sites "more than five times" and 23 percent a "few times."
Equally worrying is that 23 percent of Irish children said they had visited chat rooms for adults. Just over 10 percent have met people face-to-face that they met on-line and in 2 percent of those cases the person who had introduced themselves to the child as similarly aged turned out to be an adult. It must be noted that most children brought along a friend to such face-to-face meetings and said they had a great time.
However, the report does say that in "some few cases" children stated they had been threatened or physically hurt by someone they met on-line. They also tended not to tell their parents about such instances.
Overall, the report found that although education on Internet safety issues in Ireland is higher than in the Nordic countries, continuous works needs to be carried out to ensure that young people and students can avoid being harmed while on-line.
According to the survey, which was carried out in Ireland by the National Centre for Technology Education, around 80 percent of children in Ireland have access to an Internet connection at home, but only 12 percent use it once a day. This compares with Sweden where nearly half of kids there are on-line every day.
When on-line, kids here mostly use it for activities such as games, downloading music and "fun" activities. Nearly 40 percent do believe that using the Internet improves their homework, but books still remain the main source of information for this task.
The survey in Ireland was of 732 children in 18 primary and post-primary schools aged between nine and 16.
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