Child Internet Safety: Public Awareness Campaign Guide

Introduction

Growing up in an era where the internet and video games occupy more than 25% of a child's time makes clear just how integral technology has become to children's lives, and how vital it is that we increase awareness of both the dangers and benefits of technological advancement. This proposal aims to educate people on how to handle the security risks that children face online.

Reports about children being abused and exploited, either on the internet or in the real world, have become a regular feature of the news. Not a day goes by without such reports, and what is even more troubling is that hundreds of cases remain unreported, leaving culprits free to identify and target more unsuspecting children (Byron, 2008). Such headlines have generated widespread anxiety about technology and have repeatedly sparked heated, polarized debates characterized by fear and panic that drowns out evidence. The result is a public clamor that distracts and shifts attention away from the real issues, leaving children exposed and vulnerable — more victims of technological advancement than participants in it (Byron, 2008).

Technology is evolving so rapidly that many parents find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide, often less knowledgeable about new developments than their children. This creates a situation where parents instinctively work to protect their children in the offline world while assuming that children's technological familiarity will protect them online — forgetting that knowledge does not necessarily imply wisdom (Thierer, 2007).

As technology evolves, so does how the internet is used, and so do the potential risks it presents. Empirical research indicates that online platforms expose children to more risks than benefits (Byron, 2008). A child using the internet today is exposed to cyberbullying, stranger danger, harmful online debates, and sexually inappropriate content at rates approximately 45 percentage points higher than a decade ago (Thierer, 2007).

With the real world as dangerous as it is, parents may be inclined to keep their children indoors, occupied with the internet or video games. But if this is not accompanied by proper informational and protective mechanisms, it amounts to little more than jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There is a pressing need to take control of the future generation — to preserve its rights and to manage the risks inherent in its development by enabling children to play video games and surf the internet in a safe and informed way (Byron, 2008, p. 1).

Ongoing Public Awareness Campaigns

A number of campaigns aimed at increasing public awareness are currently active at both state and federal levels. The Cyber Peace Initiative is one such campaign (ITU, 2012). It seeks to educate young people and raise community awareness of online safety through combined youth programs. Specifically, it aims to: (i) establish a youth-run internet safety focus group that empowers children with the tools to identify and handle harmful online content; (ii) establish a supporting parent focus group that carries out a door-to-door campaign equipping parents with the knowledge needed to guide their children in safe internet use; and (iii) establish an educators' safety group that raises awareness within educational facilities (ITU, 2012).

California's Cyber Safety for Children is another significant internet safety campaign, formed through a partnership between the California Coalition for Children's Internet Safety and the Department of Consumer Affairs. Its aim is to help community leaders and parents protect the state's children from online exploitation (ITU, 2012). The initiative brings together education and business leaders, community organizations, law enforcement, government agencies, and parent groups, with a mission to "foster collaboration between stakeholders and experts" (ITU, 2012).

The 'Safety for Children in a Digital Era' Campaign

This proposal advances a public awareness campaign titled "Safety for Children in a Digital Era," operating under the slogan "Be safe, be aware, have fun." The campaign supports the need to educate children about the dangers of the internet. It recognizes that children have rights and that, if equipped with the right tools, they can be the best identifiers of their own problems (NSPCC, 2014). The campaign aims to go further than simple education — it seeks to foster accountability and responsibility by bringing perpetrators to justice, as identified by children themselves.

To this end, the campaign plan is to first transmit information that boosts awareness efforts and then increase public engagement through three core pillars:

Promotion of quality content — helping children make constructive use of the internet by showcasing quality content and creating avenues for others to develop new features using available resources.

Advice and awareness — equipping children with new digital literacy skills and advising teachers, parents, organizations, and the industry as a whole about mobile safety and responsible internet use.

Policy and protection — working in partnership with other stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, to prevent children from being exploited on online platforms and to hold accountable those responsible for harmful acts against children online.

Internet Safety: Preventing Online Harm to Children

This campaign targets parents, school administrators, the government, and children alike. The success of any public awareness campaign depends on the cohesion and combined efforts of all relevant stakeholders (Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Ybarra, 2008). What each of these groups can do to prevent and address internet insecurity is outlined below.

Literature on child development "indicates that age-related factors and understanding the ways in which children learn can provide a very useful guide to identifying and managing potential risks" posed by technology (Byron, 2008, p. 4). Brain development research indicates that understanding the frontal cortex — the key part of the brain that mediates a child's behavior and experience throughout childhood — would effectively "help parents appreciate ways in which children's experience of the internet can present risks" (Byron, 2008, p. 4).

The same risk-management approach used in the offline world ought to be applied to the online environment. In the offline world, parental monitoring decreases as a child ages, and parental control does the same (Byron, 2008). Consider the simple example of teaching a child to cross the road safely: one begins by holding their hand across the road, then teaching them to assess traffic and make judgments for themselves, and finally letting them cross independently (Byron, 2008). Road signs, symbols, and the behavior of others in the environment guide them along the way.

This illustration demonstrates that parents need to shift their approach. They ought to help children understand the risks posed by technology from the outset, and take advantage of available options to build children's resilience to harmful material, "so that they may have the confidence and skills to navigate these new media waters more safely" (Byron, 2008, p. 5).

Technical tools such as Safe Search and other parental controls offered by internet providers could be used to restrict children from accessing inappropriate or harmful material online (NSPCC, 2014). However, these tools can only be effective if parents attend informative seminars and community meetings organized by public awareness campaign administrators and gain practical knowledge of how to set them up (NSPCC, 2014). Being an effective guide for one's child begins with staying informed.

To Schools: The government can foster e-safety by ensuring that best practices are reflected in exemplar case studies across the school curriculum, or by developing e-safety as a standalone subject and incorporating it into the curriculum from the beginning of a child's schooling (Byron, 2008). Children spend more than a quarter of each day at school; school settings therefore offer ideal grounds for building children's resilience to inappropriate material and instilling a sense of accountability from a young age (Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, & Ybarra, 2008).

State governments also need to "take steps to ensure that new teachers entering the profession are equipped with e-safety knowledge and skills" (Byron, 2008, p. 8). Possible approaches include revising statutory ICT testing requirements to include e-safety standards, and "providing guidance for initial teacher training providers on how to assess training e-safety skills against the professional standards for teachers" (Byron, 2008, p. 8).

Furthermore, state governments should enforce e-safety best practices in schools by requiring all schools within their jurisdictions to submit periodic snapshot reports on their e-safety performance to state educational offices (Byron, 2008). State education officers could also conduct unannounced visits to assess compliance and report deviations to the relevant government bodies for corrective action (Byron, 2008).

To Parents: Parents understand their individual children better than anyone else. Any effective reform plan must therefore incorporate support for "measures that raise parents' e-skills and confidence to enable them to protect their children effectively themselves" (Byron, 2008, p. 10). To this end, state governments could, through various parent associations, create training modules on e-safety matters, including child behavioral management (Byron, 2008). Governments could also deploy trained parenting experts to local authorities, tasked with equipping parents with the skills and knowledge needed to protect their children online (Byron, 2008).

Conclusion

The internet is a remarkable piece of technology that can open children's eyes to immense opportunities. However, as with any powerful tool, it has its drawbacks. The most significant is that it exposes children to inappropriate and harmful material. As with any aspect of life, parents need to familiarize themselves with the various approaches available for managing the risks that come with internet use. Many parents may feel uncertain about how to talk to their children about the negative effects of the internet — but this need no longer be an obstacle, particularly with the support of the "Safety for Children in a Digital Era" public awareness campaign.

By uniting the efforts of parents, schools, governments, and communities, this campaign seeks to ensure that children can enjoy the benefits of digital technology safely, responsibly, and with confidence.

References

Byron, T. (2008). Safer Children in a Digital World: The Report of the Byron Review. Retrieved 3 March 2014 from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00334-2008.pdf

ITU. (2012). Child Online Protection. International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved 3 March 2014 from http://www.itu.int/osg/csd/cybersecurity/gca/cop/policy.html

NSPCC. (2014). How to Help Your Child Stay Safe Online: Tips, Controls, and Conversations to Help Keep Children Safe on the Internet and Social Networks. NSPCC. Retrieved 3 March 2014 from

Thierer, A. (2007). Two Sensible Education-Based Legislative Approaches to Online Child Safety. The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Retrieved 3 March 2014 from

Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K., & Ybarra, M. L. (2008). Online "predators" and their victims: Myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment. American Psychologist, 63(2), 111–128.