46.3% - Child IT users communicate online with strangers: Study
AUNICEF Sri Lanka study last week revealed a shocking fact that 46.3% of child IT users here, communicated online with people they did not know, with 27.9% of these respondents having met an online-stranger in person.
The new study report titled ‘Keeping Children in Sri Lanka Safe and Empowered Online: A study on Sri Lanka’s digital landscape’, to mark Safer Internet Day 2018, stated that 15.1% of respondents in the study admitted to providing personal information such as their name, age, telephone number and e-mail to strangers online.
A proportion of those who undertake risky behaviour admitted to sending nasty messages that could offend someone ( 24.8%) and sending or uploading ‘adult’ images, video, text ( 10.7%). A 25% of child online IT users were not aware of the privacy settings for their online accounts.
The study report revealed that 53.6% of child online IT users were ‘ self- taught’ about the internet, compared with 16.5% ‘taught by parents’.
The report revealed that many parents feel a ‘knowledge gap’ between themselves and their children in terms of digital technology, resulting in some parents holding a negative view of the internet, with 41.8% of children who are not online, said they did not access the Internet as ‘ their parents did not allow them to’.
Strengthening laws to ensure the safe use of the internet by children, establishing a selfregulatory body of industry partners, encouraging Internet Service Providers ( ISPs) to introduce network-level parental controls and developing age- specific educational and training material into the IT curriculum in schools were some recommendations suggested.
Other recommendations include revising the ‘Computer Crimes Act’ in terms of online safety of children, developing a ‘code of good practices’ to guide the internet industry on measures required to keep children safe online,
“In this respect, given the expansion of Wi-Fi hotspots in towns and cities in Sri Lanka, an accreditation mark for childfriendly Wi-Fi zones is recommended,” UNICEF said.
UNICEF said that, while digital access exposes children to a wealth of benefits and opportunities, it can also unlock a host of risks, including the misuse of their private information, access to harmful content, and cyber-bullying.
The study revealed that, while 52.8% of young people in Sri Lanka access the internet - with the average age of first access being 13 years – there is a significant ‘ digital divide’ based on gender, geographical location and poverty.
Among the 11- 18 year- old’s, 67.6% are boys compared with just 33.1% of girls.
Regionally, 67.8% of online users were from urban areas, compared with 47.1% from rural locations and 39.3% from plantation areas.
With an estimated 6.7 million internet users in Sri Lanka in 2018, representing 32% of the total population, a rise from 4 million in 2015, internet usage is growing across all age groups.
This study was conducted by the Institute for Participatory Interaction in Development ( IPID) and questioned over 5,349 children, parents and teachers.