Do you know where your children go online?

Cal Davies, 16: 'Most of my friends have received a question saying, "Why are you so ugly?" or, "When are you going to kill yourself?"' Photograph: Laura Pannack for the Guardian
• The Guardian, Saturday 9 November 2013


Thirty years ago, children were taught never to accept sweets from strangers, but the equivalent modern message, about staying safe online, doesn't seem to be getting through. For all its positives, the online world is full of potential hazards to young people. Sexting, bullying and sexual approaches from strangers are online dangers modern teenagers routinely face. And adults' knowledge of what young people are doing online is often vague and complacent.
Nearly half of British children now have online access in their bedrooms, while a quarter of 12- to 15-year-olds owns a tablet of their own. The number of this age group using smartphones to send, receive and post photos online has risen significantly in the past year, and Ofcom points out that children's online safety skills have failed to rise at the same rate, with particular risks coming from the lack of privacy on social networking sites. Most parents of five- to 15-year-olds believe they know enough about the internet to keep their children safe, but, according to research by internet security system McAfee in 2012, four-fifths of teenagers say they know how to hide their online behaviour from parents.
Some parents feel their only recourse is to restrict internet access, but James Diamond, of parenting and technology website Quib.ly, says: "A big reason that children don't tell parents about abuse is that the default reaction of parents is to take the internet away from them."
Internet safety needs to be taught, with specific ground rules and open communication between generations. Parents need to know that the dark side of the online world can't be avoided – if they have teenage children, it is almost certainly already in their lives.