NSPCC Cymru/Wales has said that a whole community response to internet safety is essential if we are to protect young people from the “very real potential for physical and psychological harm”.
Speaking ahead of Safer Internet Day, Ann Pulling, ChildLine service manager for Wales said that significant increases in counselling about online bullying, sexting and grooming to ChildLine last year were “proof positive that more needs to be done to protect the vulnerable”.
“There is, of course, a balance to be struck – the online world offers an incredible breadth of information, as well as being an essential skill for life and the working world. However, the ease with which children and young people can access the online environment – be it by phone, tablet, laptop and even gaming – means that we have to both monitor and educate young people to make safe and responsible choices.
“There is no question that industry and government have a huge responsibility to develop innovative solutions to the proliferation of child protection problems online, but the buck doesn’t – and must not – stop there.
“We need to step up to the plate within our schools, homes and communities to reinforce what is and isn’t acceptable, and to be prepared to engage with what children are really doing and experiencing online.
“It’s vital that how we manage Sex and Relationship Education is in tune with what young people are encountering online. Very often they’ve seen a wealth of inappropriate, unrealistic and sometimes downright harmful content, which we’re failing to challenge in any meaningful way. We need to help them frame what they’re encountering, in terms of pornography, peer pressure and relationships, so that they achieve a view of what is genuinely safe and appropriate.”
Highlighting the role each and every one of us – as adults, care-givers, educators and fellow internet users – can play in making the internet a safer place, Ann continued:
“The fact that young people’s online literacy tends to outstrip that of many adults is something we need to be proactive in addressing. We must not allow our lack of confidence to mean huge areas of online activity are a mystery to us.
“For many parents in Wales, curtailing the amount of time spent online takes priority over monitoring exactly what young people are accessing, and how they are interacting with other users.”
Last year 4,500 young people from across the UK contacted ChildLine for support and advice on how to deal with being bullied via social networking sites, chat rooms, online gaming sites, or via their mobile phones. Of the contacts received, 353 were to bases in Wales.
Today, camera phones and webcams are everywhere, and often young people talk to ChildLine about being made to post sexually provocative images online, or share them via a mobile phone at the request of someone they had met online. The number of counselling sessions about Sexting has consequently increased by 28 per cent since 2011/12.
Grooming was another form of online sexual abuse talked about by 327 young people across the UK, with one in four telling ChildLine that they had been groomed online.
A teenage male spoke to ChildLine about his online experiences: “I think I have done something stupid. I have been feeling a little confused about my sexuality so I went on this dating website where I met another guy. He persuaded me to show him things and then told me that he had recorded it and was going to show everyone. He has deleted his account now but I am so scared that it is going to come back and embarrass me. I feel like I can’t relax anymore and have been having suicidal thoughts.”*
Ann continued: “Importantly, we must feel reassured that our young people are applying the same standards to the internet as they apply to ‘real life’, in terms of how they protect themselves, whether they have the confidence seek help when they have concerns, but also in ensuring that they are aware of the repercussions for originating or distributing potentially harmful or abusive content.”
Find out more about how you can protect your child online at www.nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety.
