Detica On Parents & Internet Fear
Posted: 29th Jul, 2004 By: MarkJ
IT consultancy Detica has responded to last weeks report from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which could scare people away from online benefits:
DONT ALLOW OFFENSIVE MATERIAL TO FORCE CHILDREN OFF THE INTERNET, URGES DETICA
The issue of protecting young people effectively from offensive material online remains unresolved and is in need of urgent attention, says David Porter, Head of Security & Risk at Detica, the specialist IT consultancy. Concerns have been underlined with the publication of new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) last week, which shows that 57% of 9-19 year olds have come into contact with pornography on the Internet and one third have received unwanted sexual or nasty comments.
Porter says: Research we conducted with MORI earlier this year showed that, alarmingly, almost one in ten [8% - footnote 1] parents feel they have no choice but to ban their children from going online - which equates to around 200,000 UK children [footnote 2] who are forbidden from using the Internet. Given that online resources are a core educational tool today, thats a large number of children who are being disadvantaged through no fault of their own.
When questioned for Deticas poll, 40% of all Internet users said they were concerned that children might access offensive content and suffer harm as a result. Whilst some simply banned their children from using the Internet, others employed less stringent controls: 38% only let their children go online under supervision and 33% use software to prevent them accessing offensive sites. 22% said they would trust their children to be sensible.
Porter concludes: The Internet should be a valuable and rich resource for children - the LSE survey showed that around 90% now use the Web for homework and 72% for e-mail. Parents should be able to trust that their children are safe when online, but the sad reality is that right now it is impossible to stop offensive content reaching a desktop.
DONT ALLOW OFFENSIVE MATERIAL TO FORCE CHILDREN OFF THE INTERNET, URGES DETICA
The issue of protecting young people effectively from offensive material online remains unresolved and is in need of urgent attention, says David Porter, Head of Security & Risk at Detica, the specialist IT consultancy. Concerns have been underlined with the publication of new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) last week, which shows that 57% of 9-19 year olds have come into contact with pornography on the Internet and one third have received unwanted sexual or nasty comments.
Porter says: Research we conducted with MORI earlier this year showed that, alarmingly, almost one in ten [8% - footnote 1] parents feel they have no choice but to ban their children from going online - which equates to around 200,000 UK children [footnote 2] who are forbidden from using the Internet. Given that online resources are a core educational tool today, thats a large number of children who are being disadvantaged through no fault of their own.
When questioned for Deticas poll, 40% of all Internet users said they were concerned that children might access offensive content and suffer harm as a result. Whilst some simply banned their children from using the Internet, others employed less stringent controls: 38% only let their children go online under supervision and 33% use software to prevent them accessing offensive sites. 22% said they would trust their children to be sensible.
Porter concludes: The Internet should be a valuable and rich resource for children - the LSE survey showed that around 90% now use the Web for homework and 72% for e-mail. Parents should be able to trust that their children are safe when online, but the sad reality is that right now it is impossible to stop offensive content reaching a desktop.
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