Children rarely getting help from online services, says EU survey
Unique European survey on how to protect children from online risk: only 13% upset by Internet made report.
The digital world and internet-enabled smartphones pose risks to children.
Existing reporting tools on the Internet aimed at helping children who face problems online "do not work", a pan-European project led by the London School of Economics has found.
Only 13% of children who were upset on the Internet reported this through an online reporting mechanism, highlighting the need for the industry to help more.
Malta was not a part of this phase of this study but it joined last year and will form part of the next phase. "In Malta we need to discover more about what children are doing online and that is why we are participating in the present phase of the EU Kids Online research", Prof. Mary Anne Lauri, from the University of Malta, said.
Lauri is the Maltese coordinator for the project.
This report is being released on the eve of a meeting that will be hosted by the European Commission on July 11th during which the internet industry will present their efforts to keep children safe online in a meeting hosted by the European Commission.
Lauri said that the conclusions reached in other European countries highlight the importance of researching how Maltese children are using the internet to be able to understand their needs. "Following the footsteps of these other European countries we can then refer to industry and policy makers to urgently address these needs."
When asked about what worried them a lot about their children, parents' top five concerns school achievement, road accidents, bullying - on or offline - and crime. Online risks - being contacted by strangers or seeing inappropriate content - come fourth and fifth in the list of nine worries: one in three parents say they worry about these risks a lot. Fewer worry about alcohol, drugs, getting into trouble with the police and sexual activities.
At the same time, children reporting problems resulting from contacts met online were generally dissatisfied with the help received from online services. Only two thirds of children who reported content or conduct risks found the response helpful, though one third did not. Those reporting sexual images were a little more positive about the help received than those reporting conduct risks such as 'sexting' and cyber-bullying.
