On-line safety: It’s a family thing

When you get prime-time national TV covering issues such as on-line predators, you can’t but assume that the item is important.  The BBC’s Panorama (‘One click from capture’) returned to the issue of how a simple experiment of putting a young girl’s details onto social networking websites ended with the arrest of an online predator. This was a follow-up piece in response to the overwhelming interest that Panorama had to this topic when they first covered it in January of this year.

The programme managed to bring attention to the issue of family on-line safety and also dispense some good and practical advice. This time the advice was directed at the children and then made the call to parents to ‘get involved and know what your children are up to’.  However, we’ve found that while the vast majority of parents are concerned about what their children get up to online, only half of less of the parents we surveyed worldwide (37 per cent in UK) have taken steps to set parental controls on the family PC www.norton.com/uk/familyresource and only four in 10 have spoken to their child on safe Internet practices . We discovered that one in five children we surveyed worldwide admitted to conducting activities online that they know their parents would not approve of and 24 per cent of UK online children spend ten times or more time online than their parents think they do. So, there appears to be a real disconnect between what children are doing online and what parents actually know they are up to online. This has got us thinking as to why this should be the case?  We think we need to give parents a tool that is flexible and allows them to implement the parenting style that is appropriate to them and to their children. We think they need a tool that builds trust and dialogue between the parent and the child. We think they need a tool that spans the new frontiers of where their children are going on-line: social networking, IM, search etc.

So, we have lots of thoughts: now it is time for action. I spent last week giving a ‘sneak-peak’ of some Alpha code of what we think our new ‘Family on-Line Safety’ application could or should be. I hope that I can extend an invitation to all of you to take a look at it…in the next couple of months.

 

May 28, 2008 | Filed Under Family Online Safety, Security | Leave a Comment 

Is Hector the new Tufty?

The early seventies started to see growth in ownership in cars here in the UK. I was aware as a kid in the seventies what a big deal it was that my Dad had acquired our first family car, a Morris. Please don’t laugh. It was a lovely battleship grey from memory.

Just about the same time, at Primary School, the ‘Tufty Club’ became a big focus for all us little ones. I have a memory of sitting cross legged in the assembly hall and being sombre as the penny started to drop that ‘cars’ could be bad and we really needed to be careful on crossing roads and walking to and from school. However, the colouring in books and a guest appearance by ‘Tufty’ himself soon lifted my mood.

However, Tufty did keep me safe and I have something to thank him for. Well, here in the new millennium any households have family computers and I was intrigued to read that ‘Hector the dolphin’ is to be used to help teach young children how to keep themselves safe on line. Who say’s good ideas go out of date?

The cynics may sneer, but I wish Hector every success. To meet Hector yourself use this link http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld/

May 15, 2008 | Filed Under Family Online Safety | Leave a Comment