Managing Web Safety
Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll: a wicked combo of everything alluring, mysterious, and naughty to people of all ages. Modern parents have even more to worry about as their little hell-raisers have access to the evils of the world wide web. On top of sex and drugs, parents must worry about cyber bullying, identity theft, online predators, cybercriminals, computer viruses (i.e. “cyber aggression”). . . and the list could go on almost infinitely. But, are these worries based in reality? Research has shown that unwanted sexual solicitation and unwanted pornography exposure is actually decreasing (Jones & Finkelhor, 2011, p. 183; Livingstone & Smith, 2014, p. 8) and Dr. David Finkelhor noted that “studies most generally suggest that bullying still occurs at higher rates in face-to-face than in digital contexts” and “studies show that a small proportion of sex offences against children (under 2%) had an online component” (Finkelhor, 2014, p. 656). That being said, most research revolving around internet safety basically stop in 2010, relying heavily on the 2010 Youth Internet Safety Survey. That was six years ago and, in terms of technology, almost ancient history.
So, what do we really need to be concerned about? Nearly every piece of research finds that online harassment, aka cyber-bullying, is on the rise (Jones & Finkelhor, 2011, p. 183; Livingstone & Smith, 2014, p. 8). Founders of the Cyberbullying Research Centre Justin Patchin and Sameer Hinduja discovered on average “about 21% of teens have been cyberbullied and about 15% admitted to cyberbullying others at some point in their lifetimes” or about one out of every four teenagers has experienced cyberbullying (Patchin & Hinduja, 2013). That's an astonishing number of students being cyberbullied and, even in 2010, the well-quoted Youth Internet Safety Survey found a dramatic rise in cyberbullying rates.
Further, many of the issues parents and educators fear regarding their children and/or students on the internet could be resolved with thorough and consistent education in information literacy and digital citizenship. Students need to know how information on the internet is created, where they can find proper information, and how to communicate when something doesn’t feel right to them. Common Sense Media provides amazing, free, and online courses in Digital Citizenship for educators and they also provide in-depth tips for parents on Privacy and Internet Safety, Cyberbullying, Haters, and Trolls, and a host of other parental concerns related to children and media. In fact, there a tons of resources for educators and parents to utilize when discussing information literacy and digital citizenship.
Training our students and children how to use the internet in the correct way as well as how to be good digital citizens it the primary way to help students stay safe on the internet. Instead of obsessing over everything our children do and what they see, it is more important to “empower students to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly in our digital world” (Common Sense Media, 2016).
References
Common Sense Media. (n.d.). Internet Safety. Retrieved May 20, 2016, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/digital-citizenship/internet-safety
Common Sense Media. (2016). Common Sense K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. Retrieved May 20, 2016, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence
Finkelhor, D. (2014). Commentary: Cause for alarm? Youth and internet risk research - a commentary on Livingstone and Smith (2014). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(6), 655-658. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12260
Jones, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, D.. (2011). Trends in Youth Internet Victimization: Findings From Three Youth Internet Safety Surveys 2000–2010. Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of Adolescent Health.
Kerstens, J., & Jansen, J. (2016). The Victim–Perpetrator Overlap in Financial Cybercrime: Evidence and Reflection on the Overlap of Youth’s On-Line Victimization and Perpetration. Deviant Behavior, 37(5), 585-600.
Livingstone, S., & Smith, P. K. (2014). Annual Research Review: Harms experienced by child users of online and mobile technologies: the nature, prevalence and management of sexual and aggressive risks in the digital age.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(6), 635-654. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12197
Patchin, J., & Hinduja, S. (2013, November 20). Cyberbullying Research: 2013 Update - Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved May 20, 2016, from http://cyberbullying.org/cyberbullying-research-2013-update
