5th February 201324,000 children and young people talk about their online rights and responsibilities for Safer Internet Day 2013.
For Internet Day 2013, the UK Safer Internet Centre have conducted the UK’s largest ever study of young people’s attitudes toward online rights and responsibilities.
This was designed to help the UK Safer Internet Centre understand children and young people’s online experiences and how these inform their opinions on the roles they, as well as parents, government, industry and educators, have in ensuring everyone is safe online.
The surveys with primary and secondary pupils collected the views of over 24,000 young people age 7-19 from across the UK. Each were presented with a number of rights and responsibilities, and asked to vote on the ones they felt most important. This has produced the top ten rights and responsibilities primary and secondary charters representing the views of young people across the country. In order to explore the survey’s findings the results have been discussed in targeted focus groups with 90 young people from across the UK.
The key findings from the report revealed:
1. The right to feel safe, and the responsibility to support others
Young people believe they have a right to be safe online: Overwhelmingly we heard from young people that they believe they have a right to be safe online, and this was selected as the most important right by primary and secondary age children. It was selected by over half (57%) of the primary age group in their top 3 rights, and by nearly two-thirds (63%) of secondary age pupils in their top 5 rights.
Young people recognise they have a responsibility to help their friends stay safe online: Friends play an important supportive role for young people and this is as true for online as it is for offline experiences. Across all ages, young people believe they have a responsibility to support their friends online. It is very important to empower young people with esafety knowledge, not only to protect themselves but also to support their peers and siblings.
Parents play a key role in supporting young people online: Young people believe it is important that they can turn to someone if they are worried or upset about anything they see online. There are a range of people who young people turn to, but both primary and secondary age children are most likely to turn to their parents if something upsets or worries them online.
2. Enjoying the internet
Young people of all ages are enjoying the benefits of the internet: Young people take part in a wide range of activities online, enabling them to discover and access a wide range of content, connect with their friends and family as well as offering the potential to create and distribute their own content.
What stops youth enjoying their time online? Many young people having fun online, but there are some things that stop them enjoying their time online. For both primary and secondary age children, adverts and people being unkind were the two things that stopped them enjoying their time on the internet the most.
3. The role of reporting and privacy tools in supporting internet safety
Young people want online tools to help them manage their privacy and report concerns: As well as turning to friends and family members for support in staying safe online, young people really value the growing array of safety tools and services available to them online: both primary and secondary age children believe they have a right to report concerns and to manage privacy. While the study shows that the majority of young people are aware of reporting, a number of young people are not making the most of this tool because they lack the skills, knowledge or confidence in the reporting process.
4. The need for e-safety education
Young people want to be taught about staying safe online: The right to be educated about staying safe online was voted in the top 10 rights on both the primary and secondary surveys, and many 7 – 19s said they have been taught about staying safe online in the last year.
The full press release, executive summary and report can be found at the UK Safer Internet Centre at www.saferinternet.org.uk
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