Website to help parents become more web savvy

A website for parents aims to help them become web savvy at a time of rising cyberbullying and new online challenges faced by their children.

Reachoutparents.com[/url] was launched yesterday by Minister for Mental Health, mental health minister Kathleen Lynch.

It aims to provide parents with information about supporting young people’s mental health and well-being, where to go to for help, as well as ways to monitor their own mental health.

It was just one of a number of new innovations discussed and debated at a day-long Technology for Well-Being conference held in Croke Park. One speaker, Brian O’Neill, head of the School of Media at Dublin Institute of Technology and chair of the Internet Content Governance Advisory Group, used data from the EU Kids Online study to show changing trends in how children and young people are using social media.

Prof O’Neill said 54% of children in Ireland use social networking sites, although underage use has been decreasing since 2010 — and the figure of 54% is still less than children in Romania, Denmark, the UK, and Italy.

Among nine to 10-year-olds, 14% use social media. He said that 93% of 15 and 16-year-olds use social media as 41% of young people access the internet on a mobile platform. Dr O’Neill told the conference those in the nine- to 16-year-old age bracket are most likely to speak to parents about what they see online.

He said cyberbullying had increased since 2010, as had other negative online experiences, such as hacking and viruses, but most risks had actually decreased slightly since 2010.

For its part, reachout.com found 68% parents research health information online, while 22% research mental health.

The conference also heard from a number of different speakers and about a range of different apps and online initiatives that are either already up and running or under development.

They include the the SuperMe App by Jennifer Ryan who spoke about encouraging young people being bullied to speak out; psychiatrist Dr Darren Roddy spoke about using facial affect recognition to improve diagnosis in psychiatry.

Dr Ella Arensman of the National Suicide Research Foundation NSRF) who discussed the iFightDepression programme, a management tool for those with mild to moderate depression. Kid Tech and Digital Youth Council founder, 16-year-old Harry McCann, said it was important for kids to learn how to socially interact and communicate away from online, while Corkman Colin Healy discussed his Breakthrough For Life app, which aims to allow people using mental health services to share their experiences via audio files online.

The conference were also told about a free internet safety resource for schools — watchyourspace.ie — and heard that for younger people, the internet should be like ‘social snacking’ — that is, complementary to social engagement. The issue of ‘phubbing’ was also aired — the term for paying attention to your smartphone while neglecting the physical attention of those in your presence.

reachoutparents.com