Parents warned over risky online material

The latest details of research among Irish 9 to 16-year-olds show they are being more exposed to harmful images and messages. Despite age restrictions, one-in-seven aged 9 or 10, and 39% of 11 and 12-year-olds, have a social network profile, but both figures are lower than in most European countries.

Almost half the younger group — third-class and fourth-class ages — were on Facebook, a site which three-quarters of 11 and 12-year-olds use. Between 6% and 10%, depending on age, had a Twitter account.

Primary school children use the Instagram photo-sharing network more than any other to share or view photos, with 17% of children aged 9 or 10 and 29% of 11 to 12-year-olds having an Instagram profile.

As reported a year ago in the Irish Examiner, interviews in late 2013 with 500 young people revealed that one-in-five were bothered by something online in the previous year, double the figure recorded just three years earlier.

Those who use smartphones or tablets every day were more likely to be affected, the Net Children Go Mobile research found.

The question of mediating internet use was addressed yesterday by Brian O’Neill, co-author of the report.

“Because internet use is now a much more private experience with less direct parental supervision, parents more than ever need to communicate with children about their online experiences,” he said.

Although Irish parents engage more in active mediation of internet safety than elsewhere in Europe, 29% do not communicate with their children about what they do on the internet.

A year ago, initial findings revealed that almost half of children access the internet from their bedrooms, but among 15- and 16 year-olds the figure has jumped from 43% to 77% since 2011.

One-in-10 aged 13 or 14, and 22% of 15 and 16-year-olds, had received sexual messages online. In the previous year, 20% of children saw sexual images — online or offline — up from 17% in 2011, but much lower than the 28% across Europe.

However, messages about the need to be careful about who they are in touch with online appear to have had an effect. The proportion of girls with more than 100 contacts on a social network fell from 29% to 17% between 2010 and 2013, although it remains at 28% for boys.

Smartphones are the devices most used for online access, being the main route to the internet for 35% of 9- to-16-year olds, followed by laptops (29%) and tablets (27%).

Girls are more likely to have been victims of bullying, the 26% of females to have experienced it compared to 17% of boys, either online or offline. One-in-five girls say they were upset by it, almost double the proportion of boys.

Among 13 and 14-year-olds 13% or nearly one-in-seven have been bullied on a social networking site.