Brussels, 20/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - A new report that examines the needs of the youngest internet users in terms of their online safety education has recently been published by European Schoolnet, which coordinates Insafe, the European network of Safer Internet Centres. The report also considers the needs of parents and teachers for appropriate resources that can help them to support the children in their care using the web. The right balance needs to be found to attract their attention and they should not be bombarded with impractical advice or frightened away from an environment that is rich in learning.
The report outlines the results of a survey of 30 Safer Internet Centres on the current information and resources they provide for this age group. It summarises the challenges in developing resources for this age group, and highlights suitable channels of communication to reach young users, as well as testing methods and measurements of impact for such resources.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations and guidelines, which include: (1) Share good practice - good practice should be shared, Europe wide, to address the specific and varied needs of the youngest internet users. Targets and impact measures should be developed alongside good practice; (2) Support teacher training - materials should be developed specifically to extend the knowledge and understanding of teaching professionals on eSafety issues for young internet users; (3) Facilitate family support - at this age, parents and carers are likely to be closely involved with their children's use of technology. Unless there is good reason for not doing so, all materials designed for this age group should include family support materials; (4) Collaborate on safety in its widest sense - children should be educated on “online” risks alongside “offline” risks. Resources and information for this age group, and their carers, should therefore be developed in collaboration with other leading safety agencies; (6) Consider developmental issues - children up to the age of nine demonstrate the widest range of understanding and communication skills of any age group. Further research is needed to identify the impact of resources and identify those methods that develop the greatest safety understanding and practice; (7) Measure impact and gain user feedback - formal, systematic feedback systems should be developed for measuring the impact of online safety resources for this age group. (IL/transl.fl)