Brussels, 07/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Safer Internet Day, marked by the European Commission on 7 February, COFACE (Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union) flagged up the dangers for children of online advertising and encouraged parents to become more savvy when it comes to software and other online protection instruments. “It is very difficult for parents to keep up to date with new challenges ICTs (information and communication technologies) yield, especially when it comes to providing guidance and protection for their children's use of ICT”, said COFACE Director William Lay. Online advertising has grown tremendously over the last decade, up by 15.3% in 2010, and has reached €17.7 billion in the EU. Features proposed by the likes of Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, however, protect children from unsolicited advertising and tracking, by blocking inappropriate content, COFACE says.
Still within the context of the Safer Internet Day, Microsoft has published the results of an investigation into online safety behaviour and use of online safety tools by citizens in the 27 member states of the European Union. The investigation used the Microsoft Computing Safety Index (MCSI), a system which measures over 20 protective steps people can take to help protect themselves online. The results reveal that 78% of those surveyed were careful of their online safety. However, fewer were aware of how to combat cyber-attack. Young people are more focused on online safety than their elders. Thus: (1) 40% of younger users, aged between 14 and 24, changed their social networking privacy settings to limit what information they share, compared with 34% in the 45-59 age group; (2) younger people are more likely to use search engines to monitor and manage their personal information online (40% of 25-29 year-olds compared with 22% of 45-59 year-olds); (3) 62% of 14-24 year-olds create screen names and/or gamer tags that are not their real names; and 68% in this age group create passwords using upper and lower case letters, numbers and/or symbols. The average MCSI score across all 27 countries was 44 out of 100 which corresponds to full protection. So, while most consumers use firewalls, anti-viruses and other protection software, and have strong passwords, further education is required on what can be done and what tools can be used to increase online safety. (IL/transl.rt)