Transcript Children’s Internet Use in Ireland: Balancing Risks, Responsibilities and Opportunities Dr Helen McQuillan, Dr Brian O’Neill Dublin Institute of Technology.

Children’s Internet Use in Ireland:
Balancing Risks, Responsibilities and
Opportunities
Dr Helen McQuillan, Dr Brian O’Neill
Dublin Institute of Technology
Internet Use in Ireland
- ICT as the driver of the knowledge economy
- Broadband infrastructure and household ICT
- Schools’ ICT strategy
- Young people and new media
- Regulation and responsibility
- Poor empirical research base
Children’s Use of the Internet
- 6 studies of young people’s use of the internet
- 79% (9-16 years) have home internet
- 58% (4-12 years): rural and urban
- 64% (9-16 years) regularly use school internet
- Introduced to the internet at home
- Internet use rising steadily
SAFT – Ireland (Webwise)
SAFT (Safety Awareness Facts and Tools) survey of 848 9-16 year olds (2006)
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90% have internet at home
Over 50% said their parents rarely or never spoke to them about their internet use
27% met someone new online who asked for their photo, phone number, school, address,
an increase from 19% in 2003
7% met an online friend offline, 24% of these had claimed to be a child but were adults
35% had visited pornographic sites; 26% had visited hateful sites (mostly boys)
23% had received unwanted sexual comments online (more boys)
19% of chatters were harassed/bothered/upset/threatened online
Webwise 2006 (2006) Webwise Survey of Children’s Use of the Internet 2006: Investigating Online Risk Behaviour. Ireland,
July 2006. Available at: www.webwise.ie/GenPDF.aspx?id=1389
What are children doing online?
2007
2003
Messaging
Games
Bebo/YouTube
Surfing - fun
Games
Music
Music
Information
- Patterns of use changing
- Ladder of Online Opportunities
- Gendered patterns of use
- Extensive use of social networking
Exposure to Online Risks
1. Giving out personal information
(79%)
2. Accessing or seeing pornography
(37%)
3. Viewing violent or hateful content
(26%)
4. Being harassed, bullied or stalked online (19%)
5. Receiving unwanted sexual comments
( 9%)
6. Meeting an online contact offline
( 7%)
Parental Perceptions of Risk
- Different risks perceived by adults and children
- Children more aware of commercial exploitation
- Adults more concerned about illegal use
- Parents concerned about generational divides
- Both concerned about offensive material
Internet Safety – Whose Responsibility?
- State approaches to internet safety
- Industry responses
- School programmes
- Parental awareness and mediation strategies
- Individual responsibility and peer learning
- Media and moral panic: good or bad?
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Encouraging Safer Internet Use
- Media literacy education
- Media literacy policy
- Mapping new risks
- Encouraging public discourse
- Exploiting the potential of Web 2.0