In a recent survey it was found that more children meet with strangers that they got to know online than not. A staggering 53% of them being 15-17 years old, and 57.4% boys.
To investigate the factors that protect and make children vulnerable online, the study explored the role of parents, teachers and friends. Nearly one in two (48.1%) child participants said that they never or hardly ever spoke to their parents about their internet use and 60.5% were never or hardly ever encouraged by their parents to explore and learn new things online. According to their children, 42.0% of parents never suggested ways for their children to use the internet safely and 49.1% never spoke to their children about what do if something online bothered or upset them. Parents scored themselves even worse on their mediation, with 57.0% of parents (compared to 42.0% of children) saying that they had never suggested ways to use the internet safely. However, parents did show a deep concern for their children’s online wellbeing in the focus group discussions, but this did not necessarily translate into tangible mediation practices. Only one in two (53.2%) parents reported having ever had any guidance on how to support and mediate their children’s internet use.
This presents a crisis situation. Schools, teachers, parents, and the government need to work together on this issue.
