Internet Safety October 2011

Content  Some online issues relevant to your child  What we do to protect your child  What you can do to protect your child  Where to find more help

What we want to achieve “Helping to make the Internet a great and safe place for children” Responding to the negative Promoting the positive

CEOP  CEOP, Child Exploitation and Online Protection organisation, provide information and training on the safe use of the Internet. Throughout this presentation, some of the facts and figures have been provided by CEOP  CEOP are a worldwide organisation  They have reports made to them each month. These include reports about unsolicited attention and inappropriate online contact.

Learning Online? Research Communication skills Confidence Commitment Computer skills Creativity

YOUNG PEOPLE Interactive chat, IM, Music, Games, Blog PARENTS Mostly & web for research Different users

Digital footprint WHAT YOU SHARE + WHAT OTHERS SHARE ABOUT YOU = YOU ONLINE

Do you really know what your children are doing online?

Issues with using the Internet ContentContactCommerce  Inaccurate information Threatening s Blur between advertising & content Racist contentStrangers / groomers Invasion of privacy & SPAM Pornography

Issues surrounding use of Internet  Unwanted contact/grooming  31 March 2010 – 34,939 individuals registered as sex offenders in England and Wales  Cyberbullying  Harmful content/illegal material  Privacy/digital footprints

Issues surrounding use of Internet  Addiction  Some children can become obsessed with playing games or using social networking sites  Loss of inhibitions  Images / Unsuitable images  Think about where the image could end up  If the image is out there – who has seen it? Who is using it as their own?  Who is trying to find out more about a child from the detail in the background of the image?

Photographs  Cameras on phones in pocket  Quick and easy to send image  39% sent explicit/provocative images of themselves (survey of year olds by Plymouth University in 2009)  40% thought it was alright to send topless images  15% though it was alright to send nude images

Issues surrounding use of Internet  The Internet never forgets  Children share too much information  So that they can be found by potential friends  To seem popular  Know information about people before meet them – offenders see this information as well

CEOP Case study  14 year old girl  Chatting to 17 year old boy called Johnny via MSN  Actually 42 year old man  On MSN as Johnny for 18 months  In contact with 200 children – some as young as 11 years old  Girl reported him because he asked her to send indecent images of herself  Other children had sent indecent images of themselves to him

Survey results 2011 – Internet usage  48.7% use the Internet every day  5.9% use the Internet for more than 4 hours a day

Survey result 2011 – Where do you use Internet most? Home88.1% School1.7% Library0.8% Mobile phone7.6% Friend’s or family’s house1.3% Never use the Internet0.4%

Survey results 2011 – What room use Internet in? Front room/sitting room/lounge36.0% Your bedroom31.3% Brother's/sister's bedroom0.9% Parent's bedroom4.2% Dining room2.3% Kitchen9.3% Study15.9%

Survey results 2011 – Number of Online Contacts

Survey results 2011 – offline meetings  16 of your children said that they have met someone in the real world that they had only known online  11 of these children took someone with them  Over half took friends

What children should be aware of  Once content posted online it is difficult to remove, can be easily searched and its global  Information online leaves a traceable ‘digital footprint’  Children should not share  their real name, home address, their school, their or IM address or their phone number

What children should be aware of  Some offenders say they look to see if webcam image shows child in bedroom – if it does then they can push the child further  Never post picture in school uniform or in front of your house  Some digital cameras and mobile phones have inbuilt GPS receiver which provides location information attached to photographs

What children should be aware of  Easy to lie online – beware of strangers  Don’t accept friend requests from people don’t know in real world  Some devices have locations settings – telling others where they are

What children should be aware of  camchat/webcamchat  Easy to fake webcam feed – pre-record chat with other child  Easy to record webcam feed  Where could the video end up?  Webcams  Cover when not in use  Put down lid of laptop  Turn away from room towards wall  Can be remotely accessed

Report abuse  CEOP report abuse button  Available on many websites  Complete form with details of issue  Someone will contact you/your child from CEOP  The issue will be investigated

Gaming  Internet has facilitated revolution in gaming – social element  Risks  Addiction – average user plays for 21 hours per week  Bullying – can be highly competitive  Befriending offenders unintentionally

Gaming  Keep gaming friends ‘in games’  Don’t share personal infromation  Ensure games are age appropriate – age doesn’t relate to skill level – relates to content suitability  Set limits on how long and at what times children can play – some set alarm so that can get up and play with players in America, Australia, etc

Unsuitable sites  E.g. Chatroulette  Link you to complete strangers  Live video chat  Trial by CEOP middle of the day – 14% were undesirable/inappropriate  Trialled with male in 20s – 19 out of 20 'nested' to next person  Trialled with young female – 9 out of 10 talked to her

Unsuitable sites  pleaserobme.com  Taken down  Brought together information from other sites which people used to tell friends about holidays going on

What do we do in MCB?  Logon ID and password to control access to our computer system and personal files  Have web filtering to block undesirable material – categorised as GREEN, AMBER and RED sites by C2K  Filtering by keyword or amount of flesh tone, for example

What do we do in MCB?  filtering to block undesirable material and spam  Have acceptable use policy to cover all aspects of appropriate use of IT facilities  At the end of the first term we have Internet Safety classes with the Form 1s  Links to information from Intranet

What can you do?  Know what your child is doing online or with mobile phones  Ask them to teach you about what they do  Help your child to understand that some people lie online and that it’s better to keep online friends online

What can you do?  Tell your children to block people they feel uncomfortable with and to report them  Make sure children are aware that online actions can have offline consequences  Don’t open messages from unknown people

What can you do?  Remind children that it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable  Check out filtering for your home Internet usage  Remind child that once photo shared they lose control of it

What can you do?  Keep computers in communal rooms – not in child’s bedroom  Be your child’s ‘friend’ on facebook  Use your address as the main contact address  Set rules – eg what details they can give out, no mobile phone in the bedroom at night

What can you do?  Talk to your children about any experiences they have had already on the Internet  Keep copies of any unsuitable messages, texts, etc received  Encourage children to use search engines specifically for young people e.g. Yahoo kids

What can you do?  Revisit settings on a regular basis  they can be changed by the site itself  Children can search online for ways to get round parental controls  Check what DOB your child has used to register for sites eg facebook – different default settings depending on age – minimum age to create account is 13  Realise content of Internet is not moderated

What can you do?   Report any concerns  Sites can use eg google alerts, tweetbeep - you when there is activity relating to you chosen alert topic eg your child’s name

Things to watch out for  Excessive use of the computer  Aggressive behaviour regarding Internet usage  Secretive behaviour  Change in use of sexual language

What next?  Facial recognition of people in photographs  will bring up all information on Internet about that person  not too far from happening now  a start is Google goggles  information easily aggregated  People are now leaving a ‘digital legacy’ as part of their will – e.g. facebook account details given so can be passed on to future generations