Te achers feel ill-equipped to teach online safety in class
TEACHERS feel they are illequipped to protect children online, with more pre-teens in touch with strangers on the internet via online games, as well as social media.
CyberSafeIreland, the children’s internet safety charity, publishes its second annual report today with a warning on child protection online.
It finds 69pc of teachers do not feel equipped to teach online safety in the classroom. Almost a third of children have not properly spoken to their parents about online safety.
Many pre-teens are now spending more than four hours online every day. And more than a fifth of children are in contact with a total stranger, either through social media or online games.
CyberSafeIreland surveyed more than 1,000 children, parents, and teachers who have attended its training sessions in the past 12 months.
Data from the report highlights that parents play a crucial role in keeping their children safe online.
But almost a third (32pc) of the children surveyed, the vast majority of whom are under the age of 13, had rarely or never spoken to their parents about keeping safe online.
The report also found many primary school teachers surveyed do not feel equipped to teach online safety in the classroom. The report found that cyberbullying is a serious concern for schools, with 179 teachers dealing with 219 incidents of cyberbullying over the past year. The charity is concerned that simply not enough is being done at the national level to really address the gaps.
Its chief executive Alex Cooney said: “As a nation, we are failing in our duty to protect our children online. If children are online then they need guidance, support and supervision to manage their experiences safely and responsibly, especially when they are young.
“Too often we are seeing children taking risks by sharing personal information in videos and photos, getting involved in incidences of cyberbullying and talking to strangers online.
“Parents and teachers play a fundamental role in addressing online safety with children. Our research shows that they are not being adequately supported to take on this role.”
The report also found that 16pc of children under 13 are spending more than four hours online and that 22pc of children surveyed were in contact with a stranger.
Alarmingly, as many as 14pc of them were talking to strangers every week through online gaming or accepting social media requests.
Despite age restrictions of 13 and older on many social media services, the vast majority of children already had a significant online presence.
Snapchat and Instagram remain the most popular social media apps along with YouTube, Musical.ly, Viber, and WhatsApp.