Surfing in dangerous waters

Education for children and concerned parents about internet safety is the best protection there is

The internet is a powerful classroom tool: pupils can access huge volumes of data at the click of a mouse, participate in Web-based projects and expand their social networks. Yet it is not without its risks. A recent study of child internet users, conducted by the LSE, found that 57 per cent had come into contact with pornography online, 46 per cent had given out personal information and a third had received sexual or nasty comments. The University of Central Lancashire's Cyberspace Research Centre found that of the 1,369 children aged 9-16 it interviewed, 259 regularly used chatrooms. Of these, more than half had engaged in sex chat, a quarter had received requests for face-to-face meetings and one in 10 had agreed to such a meeting.

And the dangers aren't confined to chatrooms and pornography: there are the potential perils of online gambling or unauthorised shopping, while phone messaging and emails can transform playground bullying into a 24/7 trauma.

Schools have rightly acted to protect their pupils from these dangers. A 2002 audit of internet safety procedures in schools, conducted by the government's ICT-in-education agency Becta, found 95 per cent had some form of filtering in place, 65 per cent supervised internet access, 58 per cent monitored websites and 44 per cent monitored emails. Despite these measures, however, about 25 per cent of large secondary schools reported that children accidentally accessed inappropriate material more than once a term.

"When you are taking a lesson in the computer room, it's impossible to be everywhere at once to see what they're doing," says one former teacher. There are products that can help with policing: Net Support Software, for example, has developed a product that allows the teacher to monitor on a host computer all the screens at once to see what sites the children are looking at.

In general, children are safer surfing the Web at school than at home. "A lot of schools have filter systems, so children are much more limited in what they can access than they are at home," says Rachel O'Connell of the Cyberspace Research Centre.

Most parents underestimate the risks, largely because children hide any undesirable encounters for fear their access to the technology will be restricted. The LSE research highlighted this mismatch: while 57 per cent of children had encountered pornography online, only 16 per cent of parents thought this was the case.

Ruth Hammond, education officer with Becta, says it is important that schools involve parents in internet safety education. "There has to be a consistent message," she says. "There's no point schools keeping children safe if they can go home and access everything."

Concerned parents should check out internet filters to protect their children from the worst of the Web: AOL, for example, allows parents to fine-tune the settings according to age range.

It's not enough to rely on technology, however: children can now access the internet in libraries, train stations or even via their mobile phones, where the safeguards may not be so stringent - if they exist at all. Educating children about internet safety is, therefore, the best protection of all.

It's not just about spotting chatroom predators, avoiding unsavoury material or keeping personal details secret. Children need to be armed with the skills to interpret and evaluate the information they are accessing, which may be highly biased or inaccurate.

"Parents and teachers both need to create a climate where children feel they can discuss what they've seen rather than feeling guilty if they accidentally stumble across something disturbing," says Hammond. "Too often internet safety is left to the ICT teacher when really it should be part of citizenship or PHSE lessons."

Becta plans to issue advice for teachers this autumn which will signpost opportunities in the curriculum (Key Stages 2 and 3) for incorporating work on internet safety.

On the home front, www.parentsonline.gov.uk provides links to suppliers of filter services as well as useful advice on countering online bullying, spam and chatroom grooming. There are plenty of resources to help children understand the dos and don'ts of safe internet use: Sid's Online Safety Guide (www.bizzikid.co.uk), for example, uses a series of games and quizzes to teach best practice, while older children are more likely to respond to MSN's teen-friendly site (www.websafecrackerz.com), which helps identify when teenage banter becomes cyberstalking or online flirting crosses the line into abusive harassment.

In terms of safe educational content, it's worth checking out Curriculum Online, the National Grid for Learning or Schoolzone, the teacher-reviewed Web directory, for links to the best sites.