NSPCC - Media Centre - Media Briefings - Children and the Internet

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Media briefings

Children and the Internet

Journalist briefing, July 2007

Background

The NSPCC believes the internet is a great educational tool for children and young people. But it is also open to misuse. Children can be vulnerable to abuse through, for example, chat rooms and mobile phone technology and the making and distribution of indecent images.

The Sex Offences Act 2003 protects children from abusers who groom children in internet chat rooms. Once contact is made, it can escalate very quickly to mobile phone, text messaging, and eventually face to face contact.

It is important that children are encouraged and educated to surf safely. Parents and carers should keep up to date with new technologies and the best ways to aid children and young people's safe use of the internet.

NSPCC Safe Surfing Guide

Parents should tell their children:

Never to use their real name in chat rooms but to pick a special online nickname.
Never to tell anyone personal things about themselves or their family. - such as addresses or telephone numbers or school or clubs they go to.
Never to send photographs of themselves.
To remember people online might not be who they say they are.
Never to respond to nasty or rude messages.
To stop a conversation if they feel suspicious or uncomfortable about the way it is going, or if it is getting really personal.
To be careful with email attachments or links as they might contain nasty images. They should not open a link or attachment if they don't know who sent it
To avoid sites meant for adults.

The Internet and Europe - Safer Internet Plus programme

The European Commission's €50 million 'Safer Internet Plus' funding programme is a welcome contribution to making the internet safer for children. The current programme, running from 2005 - 2008, builds on earlier EU work to combat illegal and harmful internet content.

The 'INHOPE' network of hotlines for the public to report harmful internet content is one of positive results of the EU's activities. This includes funding for the UK's Internet Watch Foundation.

A recent Eurobarometer survey of parental attitudes towards internet use among children in Europe highlighted the high levels of internet use by children across 25 EU Member States. However it also showed significant differences between countries, including in the extent to which parents perceive or understand the dangers posed by the internet.

The Eurobarometer survey showed:

Across the EU 25, over 85% of children aged 12 -18, and 50% of all children, are reported to use the internet. This varies from 71% of all children in Denmark to 26% in Greece, with 65% in the UK.
Internet use by children is significantly lower than average in the countries which were not yet EU members at the time of the survey. These include Romania and Bulgaria, who are EU members since 1 January 2007.
In most countries, children are more likely to use the internet than to own a mobile phone. An average of 79% of 12 - 18 year olds own mobile phones, according to parents. 40% of all children in the UK are reported to own a mobile phone, compared to 54% in Denmark and 28% in Spain.
Across the EU, nearly 1 in 5 parents think their child has encountered harmful or illegal content on the internet. 48% say filtering or blocking tools are in place when their child uses the internet.
Around 2 in 5 parents set rules for their child's use of the internet, with the educational level of parents being the most significant factor in determining whether rules are set.
Rules for their child's use of the internet are set by fewer UK parents than the EU average. 55% of UK parents surveyed report setting rules, compared to an average of 57%. This ranges from 73% of parents in Finland, to 41% in Latvia.
Over half of respondents aged 15 and over know where they can report harmful or illegal content. In the UK 60% are aware of this, compared to an EU average of 52%. Compared to the last survey in 2003, awareness levels have increased significantly.
Over half of parents think their children know what to do if they come across content which makes them feel uncomfortable.
In the 25 countries which were EU Member States in 2006, under half of parents would welcome more information on how to protect children from harmful or illegal content, although this figure hides significant differences.
A lot more parents (64% on average) in accession and candidate countries would welcome more information, including 70% in Romania.

The coverage of the EU programme extends to technologies such as chatlines and online messaging, as well as mobile phones. Its four action lines are: fighting illegal content; tackling unwanted and harmful content (including spam); promoting a safer environment, and awareness-raising.

A European Commission public consultation in 2006 aimed to gather more information about risks to children posed by mobile phone use, and determine what European action would be helpful. The NSPCC responded to this consultation as part of the UK Children's Charities Coalition for Internet Safety (CHIS). More information can be found at http://europa.eu.int/iap

Internet Safety Statistics

1 in 5 children aged nine to sixteen regularly use internet chatrooms
1 in 10 chat users reported that they had attended a face to face meeting with other chat users.
3 in 4 children who go to face-to-face meetings are NOT being accompanied by adults (go with a friend or on their own)
1 in 2 chat users were unaware of the guideline 'Always take an adult with you if you go to meet someone you only know from a chat room'
1 in 5 chat users were unaware of the advice 'Remember that people in chat rooms may not be who they say they are'
Chat users who attended face-to-face meetings were 1.3 times more likely to report that they were unaware of the safety guidelines relating to going accompanied to face-to-face meetings with an adult, or meeting in a public place, than chat users who did not attend face-to-face meetings.
1 in 2 children reported that their parents never supervise their online activities
1 in 3 chat users who attended face-to-face meetings reported that they had not received any Internet safety advice from their parents.
Chat users who did not attend a face-to-face meeting were 1.3 times more likely to report that both parents and teachers were a source of Internet safety advice than non-chat users.
The group least likely to report parents and school as a source of advice were chat users who had attended a face-to-face meeting. Less than 1 in 2 chat users who have attended a face to face meeting report parents as a source of Internet safety information.
Over half of all chat users reported that other chat users had engaged them in conversations of a sexual nature.
20% of children reported that they had been harassed in a chat room and 14% admitted that they had harassed someone else.
1 in 2 users have not heard of places to report when they come across, or experience anything negative whilst on-line.

Source: Young people's use of chat rooms: implications for policy strategies and programmes of education. Cyberspace Research Unit 2002.
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/host/cru/docs/cru008.pdf

Indecent images of children

Operation Ore
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/comment/0,1074,838567,00.html
In early 2002 the US Postal Inspection Service informed the British police of thousands of Britons who had subscribed to US websites showing indecent images of children. The investigation into this list is codenamed Operation Ore. This was the largest ever list of British names to be involved in an investigation of this kind. And the list included people from all walks of life, backgrounds and professions.

Behind many of these indecent images are real children who will have suffered immense trauma and pain. Receiving or downloading abusive images of children perpetuates its production and reinforces the cycle of exploitation.

The NSPCC believes that if sexual abuse of children is to be addressed effectively, a broad approach is required to ensure that children are enabled to tell about abuse, that adults take responsibility to stop abuse and potential abusers are provided with help before they abuse.

21,017 child abuse images reports from the public processed by the Internet Watch Foundation
Only 0.4% of potentially illegal child abuse content hosted in the UK
40% of child abuse content traced to the US
28% of child abuse content traced to Russia
17% of child abuse content traced to Asian countries
13% of child abuse content traced to Europe
156 intelligence reports relating to UK offenders were passed to police
211 newsgroups are now listed as potentially illegal in the UK
226 notices were issued to internet service providers to take down a further 12,777 images that were published in newsgroups
47% of child abuse websites were commercial Pay-Per-View
70% of Pay-Per-View websites are hosted in Russia or the US
There has been a shift away from credit card transactions to alternative electronic payment systems for child abuse content sold on commercial websites
Source: Internet Watch Foundation 2005 (The IWF's vision is to combat child abuse images online)

The NSPCC is involved with the following internet bodies:-

Home Office Internet Task Force - established in March 2001. The Task Force is chaired by the Home Office and brings together representatives of the internet industry, child welfare organisations, the police and the Government. See link below.
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk

Children's Charities Coalition for Internet Safety (CHIS) - is a coalition of UK charities campaigning to make the internet a safer place for children. It involves Barnardo's, ChildLine, NCB, NCH, NCVCCO, NSPCC and The Children's Society. CHIS spokesperson is NCH technology adviser John Carr. See link below.
http://www.nch.org.uk/itok/page.asp?auto=359

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) - provides a single point of contact for the public, law enforcers, and the communications industry to report targeting of children online, and offers advice and information to parents and potential victims of abuse 24 hours a day. Based in London with up to 100 staff, it also carries out proactive investigations and work with police forces around the world to protect children. The NSPCC has two staff seconded to the centre. http://www.ceop.gov.uk/

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/helpandadvice
Virtual Global Task Force
NCH
Home Office Internet Safety
MSN web safety site, Websafe Crackerz
Internet Watch Foundation
Childnet
BBC Online
Parent's Information Network
IWF Hotline - for reporting illegal or harmful material
For Parent's Information Network review of filtering software:
http://www.pin.org.uk/filtering/index.htm