When it comes to safety in the real world kids have vital safety precautions drilled into them. They are warned about the dangers of playing on the road and thought how to cross the road safely. They are also warned about strangers and told not to get into cars with them or anything like that. Hence, despite the fact that there are serious risks out there in the real world, kids generally manage to stay safe. However, the same is not true on the Internet. Many kids are not given a basic education on the very real dangers that exist in cyber-space, or how to protect themselves. As a result they are in real danger as they wander round cyber-space totally un-prepared for the nasty reality that there are very bad people out there who want to harm them. In my view the main reason for this is that many parents don’t understand computers in general and the Internet and the concept of the now all-pervasive social networking sites in particular. Without this understanding they cannot possibly prepare their kids properly so they end up wandering around the Internet un-supervised and un-prepared and become soft targets for pedophiles and cyber-bullies. In my mind this makes a very strong case for teaching children about the Internet and particularly safety on the Internet in school.

This problem was highlighted again today when two of my fellow PhD students in NUI Maynooth (and founders of www.bigulo.com) got some good media coverage for a survey they did of Irish related Bebo profiles. The press-release makes interesting reading and is full of very simple but very effective advice for parents. If you’re a parent I’d suggest you read it, and if you have young siblings who use the net I’d suggest you talk to them or your parents about it. Anyhow, this is an important issue and it needs to be kept in people’s mind so thanks Des and Andy for getting this important issue some much-needed media attention.

[tags]Bebo, mySpace, Internet, Children[/tags]