Some thoughts on Safer Internet Day 2008 The twelfth of February was declared Safer Internet Day. The initiative taken by the European Commission is meant to sensitise society concerning the (un)safe use of ICT. However, the emphasis lies solely on communication issues: safe chat, sexual abuse, cyberbullying, pornography on the Internet, etc...

To promote Safer Internet Day, the Insafe network published an interesting movie clip (www.saferinternet.be). We see a computer mouse on a table and a dozen stereotyped hands working with the mouse: a doctor, a motorcar driver, a hippie girl, a musician, etc. The idea is to show that there are people who have different purposes for the web, suggesting that there are also people with bad intentions active. At the same time, on Safer Internet Day, a benchmark report was published about different content filters.

Safe ICT use is a complex question and has to do with more than safe chat and harmful content issues. There are also the areas of copyright, technical matters such as spam, viruses, spyware and other malware. eSafety also deserves its own healthy computer spot. How is it that on every occasion we focus solely on harmful content?

This narrow focus starts with the choice of name: it is not “Safe Internet Day”, but “SafER Internet Day”. This suggests that the internet is actually unsafe. I find that a badly founded assumption. Every kind of technology can be used for good or bad ends. Abuses are well documented and should not be underestimated; but most of the community uses the Internet exactly in the way it is designed to be used: to communicate, to exchange information, to play online games, to share ideas, things, opinions, for enjoyment…

Moral panic

Isn't the concentration on the harmful influences of Internet communication rather a form of moral panic? In no time the internet has become a substantial aspect of youth culture. On average an 18-year old spends an hour and a half per day taking part on activities on the Internet. 95% of all 15-year olds have home access to a PC and the Internet. More than 4 in 5 young people chat at least once week, most of them daily. More than half of 16-year olds download music or films weekly…

Many parents wonder what their kids are doing spending all those hours on a computer. Well, they communicate. They chat. They solve school tasks and talk about what happened during the day; or they chat about nothing. Just being online might be the only reason and purpose. They might be learning from how others react to them - a step in their search for individuality and identity. To chat is also a measure of their popularity: The idea is to have as many chat friends as possible. Last but not least, the digital world offers many opportunities to experiment. Everything happens faster, anonymously, more accessibly.

Of course accidents happen out there in the digital world; just like in ordinary life. The media do not hesitate to stress these accidents. Parents and teachers can see how much new media determine their kids’ life and world, but most of them don’t feel comfortable themselves with new technologies. On the one hand the computer is used to keep the children quiet or busy; on the other hand the lack of their own computer skills creates a feeling of loosing control over their children. Both the exaggerated attention in all kinds of media and the lack of own e-skills reinforce the wrong perception that the virtual world is a very dangerous place...

Making young people critical and alert 

Therefore it’s important that young people are critical and alert, that they are able to resist the dangers that are an inevitable part of internet use; just like they have to be alert dealing with traffic daily. Are kids then uncritical or not alert enough? By no means.

From a study commissioned by Flemish broadcasters it appears that Flemish youth are alert to sex on the Internet. One youngster in 4 received an explicitly sexual question during the past year; almost always from people they know (boy or girl friends).  The large majority (7 out of 10) didn’t like this and only 23% answered this type of question. If they answer, this happens because they trust the questioner. Exactly 4 young people reacted because they found it excited them. Eight per cent of the youngsters received a request to do something of a sexual nature for the webcam. 2 kids complied. Those were boys from the age group of 17-18 years who “found it exciting”. Eight girls (1.5%) had put a sexy photograph of themselves online over the past year.

What then is the task of parents and teachers? Kids don’t become alert and critical automatically. The involvement of teachers and parents in ICT activities is a precondition for safe use. The point is that nobody thinks of leaving their kids behind in the park, but this happens all the time in the virtual play area. If, then, youngsters have a PC in their bedroom, unguided and unguarded, we should not be surprised that those children are subject to all kinds of abuse.

To be clear: internet filters which block harmful contents and monitoring software are no alternative for parental involvement. None of the existing filters are fully effective and in many cases young people find their way around the filter in no time. Filters create a dangerous illusion that technology can take over the educating task of parents. Does the virtual "netnanny" keeps an eye on our children? Not really. Involvement implies knowing what our children are doing and talking to them about it.

Besides involvement, teacher and parents should motivate young people to respect borders and to avoid dangers. "Youngsters may detest rules and border that adults impose on them, but deep in their heart they also need and want those borders" state  Justine Pardoen and Remco Pijpers in their book “Verliefd op het Internet” (In love with the Internet). We guard our pupils in the schoolyard... in the playground, we keep an eye on them too, and we teach them how to cross the street safely. Let us teach them to surf safely too.

Author: Jan De Craemer, Ministry of the Flemish Community, Education department

Reviewing Safer Internet Day 2008

The Activity report on Safer Internet Day 2008 has now been published and is available for download. It is available from the main SID page on the INSAFE portal, along with other information which will give you an opportunity to review a range of the day's activities.

Go to SID 2008 page