Ofcom has recently published a guide on parental control and management of children’s access to the internet.
The publication follows a recent study conducted by the service provider that found out that a high percentage of children and teenagers are accessing net from their bedrooms and without any supervision whatsoever.
The recent UK Children’s Media Literacy interim report suggests that in the age group of 5-7, around 21% of the children use internet without any adult supervision, and the percentage increases to around 33% for children in the age group of 8-11.
However, around 16% of the children in the age group of 8-11 and around 35% in age group of 12-15 have internet in their rooms. The unsupervised usage of net is higher in case of teenagers. These numbers show a steep rise from 2007, when the percentage of children in age groups of 12-15 and 8-11 with net access in rooms was hardly 20% and 9% respectively.
The main problem is that these children often fail to carry out the essential security checks while using the net. They are not bothered about looking for padlocks or checking the quality of information being accessed, or even consulting people who would have visited the site earlier. Though the children are quick to learn about the security systems in social networking sites and ensure that their profiles are visible only to family and friends, they are not much concerned with checks on other sites.
An Even bigger problem is that though the parents are worried about the security issues over internet access by their children, not even 50% of them have actually thought about installing filter software or other type of internet control on their systems. Though the Ofcom guide published recently can provide them with basic tips on how to talk to their children about safe internet access, the success of the guide is yet to be seen.
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