Symantec sits on two of the working groups within the Council for Child Internet Safety and was delighted to attend the summit where Gordon Brown MP, Ed Balls MP and child psychologist Professor Tanya Byron officially launched the new internet safety campaign, Click Clever, Click Safe, and the accompanying internet safety code “Zip It, Block It, Flag It”.

We really like the campaign and are looking forward to the launch in February next year –it’s particularly good for us to see as we’ve been involved with the UK Council since before it was even formed, even consulting with Professor Byron as she was researching her report for the government.

It’s part of our remit as an internet security company to keep families and children safe online so we’ll be working with the council to help them promote the code when the campaign launches next year.

Instant messages, social networking sites, forums, blogs and old fashioned email – in the ever expanding maze of communication methods Internet security is often a tough and confusing subject for parents to broach with their children. We recently conducted a survey into children and parent’s online behavior and  found that many parents are still in denial over the varied dangers on the Internet and are ignoring the sampling their children are doing. Only four in 10 online parents in UK have spoken to their child on safe Internet practices despite 87 per cent of children feeling comfortable talking to their parents about their online experiences. *

Cory encouraged readers to ‘Give your children honest, useful privacy information’ and to try and help combat this disparity between parent and child. That’s what we have been advocating in a recent initiative, called ‘The Talk’ as part of our Norton Family Online safety Initiative.  Remember ‘The Talk’ your parents had with you? Those uncomfortable conversations with our parents on sex education? Well, we’ve been encouraging parents to adapt this for talking to their children about the Internet. A mutually beneficial discussion, it will allow the child to appreciate both the important role the Internet can play in their lives for learning as well as the potential dangers. The end goal of this is for parent and child to come to a mutual agreement outlining the ‘rules of engagement’ regarding the child’s behaviour online.  

Getting one’s child to describe their experiences, with honesty, may be difficult, particularly if the parent is not an Internet expert or as skilled as their children.  But that is OK, because it’s not necessary for a parent to be an expert to help their children enjoy the Internet safely.

Taking this initiative will hopefully enable parents to develop their knowledge of what their child does on the Internet whilst encouraging the child to interact safely and learn how to value and protect their personal privacy and identity online.

Getting awareness and engagement on how to keep safe online is an on-going focus and commitment for us. The formation of the UK Council for Children Internet Safety (UKCCIS) this month, shows the importance of this issue and that it is now recognised at a national level. Reporting directly to the Prime Minister, the Council will help improve regulation and education around keeping children safe when online.

For our part we have decided to broach this important topic with schools and children in a fun, yet informative way – “Enter stage left”, Perform. In working with the guys at Perform, we have created two characters, Zak and Zara. Set in the future on ‘Planet Disco’, the children are taken through a colourful story and along the way meet interesting and fun characters, while learning key online safety messages around topics such as cyber-bullying and using chat-rooms safely.

For more information, or practical advice for parents and children on staying safe online, then please follow this link to the Norton Family Online safety resources web site.

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.

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/