Parents can learn from young people about how to stay safe online, experts say on Safer Internet Day

Discussions have tended to focus on how older people can protect younger ones – but conversation goes both ways, say young people, tech firms and internet campaigners

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Young people and their carers must urgently talk about the dangers of the internet, experts have urged, as the world marks Safer Internet Day.

Conversations around safety, privacy and danger on the internet have tended to revolve around what parents and carers should be doing to look after young people. But new research shows those young people are keen to have an active role in safety on the internet – and are keen to educate the older people in their life about their concerns.

Some 57 per cent of young people feel that they face help to educate their parents and carers about being safe online, according to new research commissioned by the UK Safer Internet Centre, which organises Safer Internet Day in the UK.

Other research from Vodafone showed that almost half of parents feel that when their children reach the age of around 12, they are likely to know more than them about technology. Some 60 per cent of parents said they wished they were more digitally savvy, with a particular focus on digital safety.

But many older people are unclear about how to get support with those issues, they said, with 36 per cent of parents reporting that they are not sure of where to go if they need support, according to the UK Safer Internet Centre. And some young people may feel unable to report any problems they have, with only 22 per cent of them reporting someone or something troubling, and almost one in 10 reporting that they wouldn’t have a conversation with anyone about their life online.

The findings have led to this year’s Safer Internet Day in the UK focusing on conversations, and putting “the voice of young people front and centre,” said Will Gardner, the chief executive of charity Childnet and a director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, who is responsible for organising Safer Internet Day in the UK. He stressed that the research shows that young people want to play an active role in their own safety online – and that they may have important information to share with older people.

“It’s not just young people that can learn from it,” Lauren, one of Childnet’s digital leaders and a champion for this year’s Safer Internet Day told The Independent. “Everyone can learn from it.

Older people may be less aware of dangerous scams on the internet, for instance, or just unaware of how to use important features on their devices. She and others said that opening up conversations about safely using the internet could help people of all ages as a result.

“I think young people can take this opportunity to help their parents and carers and teachers, or just anyone who will listen, and say: ‘This is how you do x, y, z’.”

She stressed that parents often are spoken to by parents about privacy online and being careful about what information is made public on the internet, for instance. But young people may be more concerned about mental wellbeing and the healthiness of their interactions with other people on social media and elsewhere, she said.

“I’m quite proud of my generation; I think we’ve broken a lot of stereotypes,” she said. “Especially with mental health and wellbeing, it’s been a huge step forward, it’s amazing.”

Mr Gardner told The Independent that when talking about wellbeing on the internet and other issues it was important that parents are “receptive, and to have conversations in a way that is conducive to allow more conversations in this space”. The UK Safer Internet Centre hosts a range of resources, collated on its Safer Internet Day site, that are aimed at helping facilitate those conversations and ensuring that they are productive.

A range of companies have embraced the focus on conversations and the role that children can play both in their own digital safety and that of the older people around them. Apple for instance used the day to focus on its parental controls.

They include “Communication Safety” tools that will look to automatically detect if children are being sent nude images through Messages, for instance, using software that is built into the device. If that happens, then children are encouraged to discuss those images with their parents and carers.

“At Apple, our goal is to provide people with technology that not only improves and enriches their lives, but also helps them stay safe online,” said Erik Neuenschwander, Apple’s director of User Privacy. “We’re proud to be an official supporter of Safer Internet Day in Europe — and we’ll keep innovating every day to empower people to protect their families online.”