By Dr Peter Macaulay - 21 July 2022
With the development of digital technology, children are spending increasingly more time online. While the online environment offers many recreational, educational, and social opportunities for children, it also presents many online risks and dangers. Some of these risks include cyberbullying, pornography, sharing of personal information, inappropriate or distressing content, contact with strangers, sexting, and trolling. The Online Safety Bill aims to outline new measures for a safer online environment, making technology and social media companies more accountable for dealing with harmful content and allowing children to maximise the benefits of digital technology. It was due to be discussed in Parliament but has now been paused until later in the year. As such, it is even more crucial for parents and schools to help keep children safe online.
A report from data gathered in 2020/21 shows that nearly all children (97%) aged 5-15-years use a device to go online, with 91% of 12–15-year-olds having access to their own smartphone. Our research looking at children’s knowledge of online risks found they tended to be poor at articulating for themselves exactly what those dangers were and how they personally could avoid them.
What can parents do?
As a parent you may find yourself concerned by your child’s online activity, or the types of online risks and dangers they may be exposed to. This is completely normal. When it comes to keeping children safe online, the key solution for parents is having a conversation.
- Listen to children. It is important to start a conversation about online risks and safety with children. Ask open questions about their online activity that shows you are interested in what they are doing. You could ask what their favourite things to do online are, or what their favourite new game is. Asking non-judgemental questions are crucial for starting a conversation about online activity. Listen to what children have to say.
- Talk to children. When discussing online risks and safety, avoid treating it like an interview. Show interest in what they do online, ask them to show you a new game they may be playing, and talk about different things they have seen online. Engage in regular conversations. This will encourage children to come to you if they need support.
- Reassure children. If children experience an online risk or danger, they may not disclose this to parents or another trusted adult due to a fear of consequences (e.g., devices being removed from them). Children see this as a punishment, and often encounters with online risks are out of their control. Reassure children about the right thing to do. If they are talking to someone online that they don’t know offline, remind them not everyone online is who they say they are. Reassure children of the positive opportunities the online environment affords, but also remind them how to behave online.
Parental controls on devices can support you in managing time spent online and keeping children safe.
What can schools do?
Children of all ages across the education system can be vulnerable to online risks. While it is important children do feel safe online, these feelings would need to be based on sound knowledge of online risks and how to avoid them if children are to remain safe. So, it is important schools foster a positive school climate to promote online safety. Equipping children with knowledge of how to stay safe online via formal education is widely regarded as appropriate. Schools can embed tailored and age-appropriate online safety sessions to educate children on different types of online risks and dangers, and strategies to reduce vulnerability to such risks, and how to deal with them.
Our research suggests that teachers often struggle to keep up to date with the development of digital technology and the nature of different online risks but recognise the importance of online safety education.
The Department for Education has outlined key steps when teaching online safety in schools.
- Children need to be taught how to evaluate what they see online. The nature of the virtual environment means its more difficult for children to recognise potential risks. For example, sharing personal information on a public post or interacting with strangers on social media or online gaming. By providing children with the skills to recognise potential harmful or inappropriate content, children can take action to avoid encountering these online risks.
- Schools should outline how we should behave when we are online. It can be easy sometimes to differentiate between our online and offline lives, but for children using digital technology even more, there is no difference. In the school playground, children follow rules and have authority figures present to handle situations. Schools can encourage children to follow an agreed set of rules online for how we behave. For instance, if we see another child being bullied online, encourage children to report the incident and seek help from a trusted adult.
- Through class discussions, reflections, and case studies, schools can educate children how and when to seek support when exposed to online risks.
We have also developed a novel intervention to tackle online safety, the Cross-age Teaching Zone (CATZ), that schools can utilise to help children. In essence, CATZ invites older children (tutors) to design and deliver a lesson to younger children (tutees). The topic of the lesson is not fixed but selected by the school/teacher to improve the social, emotional, behavioural and well-being development of their pupils. One reason why CATZ is so successful at helping children learn important new things is that it overcomes resistance they often have when adults try to tell them what to do. Our research has shown the effective use of CATZ in promoting anti-bullying attitudes, increasing help-seeking behaviour, and educating children on online risks and ways to stay safe.
