Safer Internet Day 2015

According to some research carried out by Kaspersky Lab, primary school children are at increased risk of cyberbullying because their parents are not discussing or addressing the dangers at an early age.
 
Kaspersky Lab has completed in-depth interviews with children aged five to 11 and their parents to uncover the risk posed by cyberbullying amongst young children. Key findings include:
 

• The majority of parents believe that cyberbullying is not a problem until children reach at least ten, and have no plans to address it until then.
• Parents assume it’s not a problem until children start using social media, but many young kids are in fact using platforms where they can receive messages and interact with others.
• With parents unaware of the risks, many let their children – some as young as five - browse the internet unsupervised.
• Many parents feel ill-equipped when it comes to approaching the issue of cyberbullying and other online dangers with their children, with some saying there was not enough support to help them understand and prevent cyberbullying.
• Children do not realise the seriousness of nasty or malicious messages they receive online, or worse, would not tell a parent if they receive one.
• While some children recognised the need to be safe online, they do not understand why. For example, some children thought they had to be safe online because if they weren’t they “might drop or break the iPad”.

If you haven't already discussed internet safety with your children, then you can find some suggestions from the Safer Internet Centre.

The pictures illustrating this article were produced by children who were asked what a cyberbully looks like.

We also have tips for parents: Keeping children safe online.