Children’s Internet Use in Ireland: Balancing Risks, Responsibilities and Opportunities Dr Helen McQuillan, Dr Brian O’Neill Dublin Institute of Technology

Internet Use in Ireland - ICT as the driver of the knowledge economy - Broadband infrastructure and household ICT - Schools’ ICT strategy - Young people and new media - Regulation and responsibility - Poor empirical research base

Children’s Use of the Internet - 6 studies of young people’s use of the internet - 79% (9-16 years) have home internet - 58% (4-12 years): rural and urban - 64% (9-16 years) regularly use school internet - Introduced to the internet at home - Internet use rising steadily

SAFT – Ireland (Webwise) SAFT (Safety Awareness Facts and Tools) survey of year olds (2006)  90% have internet at home  Over 50% said their parents rarely or never spoke to them about their internet use  27% met someone new online who asked for their photo, phone number, school, address, an increase from 19% in 2003  7% met an online friend offline, 24% of these had claimed to be a child but were adults  35% had visited pornographic sites; 26% had visited hateful sites (mostly boys)  23% had received unwanted sexual comments online (more boys)  19% of chatters were harassed/bothered/upset/threatened online Webwise 2006 (2006) Webwise Survey of Children’s Use of the Internet 2006: Investigating Online Risk Behaviour. Ireland, July Available at:

What are children doing online? MessagingGames Bebo/YouTubeSurfing - fun GamesMusic Information - Patterns of use changing - Ladder of Online Opportunities - Gendered patterns of use - Extensive use of social networking

Exposure to Online Risks 1.Giving out personal information (79%) 2.Accessing or seeing pornography (37%) 3.Viewing violent or hateful content(26%) 4.Being harassed, bullied or stalked online(19%) 5.Receiving unwanted sexual comments( 9%) 6.Meeting an online contact offline( 7%)

Parental Perceptions of Risk - Different risks perceived by adults and children - Children more aware of commercial exploitation - Adults more concerned about illegal use - Parents concerned about generational divides - Both concerned about offensive material

Internet Safety – Whose Responsibility? - State approaches to internet safety - Industry responses - School programmes - Parental awareness and mediation strategies - Individual responsibility and peer learning - Media and moral panic: good or bad? -

Encouraging Safer Internet Use - Media literacy education - Media literacy policy - Mapping new risks - Encouraging public discourse - Exploiting the potential of Web 2.0