INTERNET safety has become quite the buzz phrase in recent years, whether it be in relation to the vulnerability of child internet users, fear of cyber- attack (a la Russia or North Korea) or worries about the invasion of privacy via “big data”.
From large-scale security concerns to small-scale discomforts and harms, the internet often seems like an unwieldy mega-monster, always launching new and unprecedented challenges at us.
There is no doubt that it makes it possible for humanity to explore its darkest sides, usually running up victims of these actions in the process.
The task of combating these nega- tive impulses is easily seen as insurmountable, with the internet making it so effortless and, usually, consequence-free, to indulge in criminal or self-interested behaviour.
Yet reducing the harmful side of the internet is exactly what will be on many researchers’, practitioners’ and policy-makers’ minds on Tuesday, February 7, which is international Safer Internet Day.
Many government institutions have taken this concern to heart in South Africa, with new bills being drafted by the Film and Publications Board and the Department of Justice to address cyber-security and exposure to problematic content in the social media era.
While these bills have faced scrutiny and have their shortcomings, they do indicate an acknowledgment of the importance of adapting our approach to safety at a high level of government.
We at the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention take a far more basic approach to internet safety, and in the last year we have conducted two studies to explore exactly how South African children and their parents are handling this new digital era. For most, the answer is surprisingly well, with children and parents reporting that they benefit from access to the internet in many ways.
Children described the value of the internet for advancing their education, connecting them to post-school opportunities, socialising with friends and just having fun. While parents were not always as techno-savvy as their children, they, too, benefited from the social opportunities the internet afforded them and the very practical benefits it had for their basic administrative chores, like searching for a job.
However, this research found that the negative side of the internet, unsurprisingly, permeates the lives of South Africans as well, with online nastiness, exposure to hate-speech and gory images and unpleasant sexual experiences being part and parcel of daily internet use.
From this research it became clear that from the perspective of children, there is one key group of role-players that are essential to promoting their online safety – their parents. The role of parents in creating a safe online experience for children is an area that has been some somewhat neglected until recently. Separating the parenting that is done offline from children’s online behaviour is impossible to do.
Children are safer online when their parents are involved in guiding their internet use from their very first use. An ongoing process of engagement around how to use the internet safely should be an intrinsic part of modern parenting. A big portion of this is also the essential work of teaching one’s child to be a good digital citizen, to apply the same offline moral principles of good neighbourliness to their behaviour in the online world.
This can impact on a child’s decision to bully, to stalk or to sexually harass another child, ultimately making the internet safer for potential victims.
Creating a safer internet can be achieved in many ways, but the one we all have most control over, is how we, and those we are charged with raising, use the internet. Parents often neglect to reflect on how they themselves use it, and so it is not surprising that many do not consider the importance of engaging with their children about this.
However, instilling principles of good digital citizenship and strategic, safe internet use in children today can have long-lasting effects on the culture of the internet in the future.
– Phyfer is a researcher at the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention