'Digital age of consent is not working' says report
Data gathered from 3,764 children aged 8 - 12 found that 93% of pre-teens own a smart device. File picture: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire
Parents need to smarten up over their children's access to online games and platforms, with a new report showing a third of children aged 8-12 had been upset or scared by something they had seen online, with many then keeping it a secret.
The 2019 annual report from CybersafeIreland also shows that 31% of children have gamed online with people they do not know and 30% of children have friends or followers on social media platforms who are strangers.
CyberSafeIreland CEO, Alex Cooney, said online service providers also had to improve their safeguarding measures as many popular platforms are easily accessible by children simply lying about their age.
The report said legislation for "robust regulation of the online service providers must be brought forward without delay", including an individual complaints mechanism so harmful content can be removed quickly and efficiently.
Ms Cooney, said: "There is lots of evidence of kids doing good things, like regularly talking to their parents, and most kids have not encountered disturbing content online.
"For us where it gets particularly worrying is of the 32% who had seen troubling content, 20% of them kept it to themselves.
"The key message is if our kids are going to be active online, then we have to prepare them better for it. We are not actively, regularly, and consistently doing that with our kids when it comes to online and we absolutely need to."
The report found that 28% of respondents said they could go online whenever they wanted, with the rate increasing with age.
Regarding the digital age of consent, currently set at 16, Ms Cooney said: "it isn't working".
While it has become more difficult to access some platforms if underage over the past year, in many cases any barriers can be easily overcome by children. Ms Cooney said it was "largely ineffective" and likened it to "fiddling while Rome burns".
According to the report there needs to be more onus on Online Service Providers to put proper safeguards.
It said: "Privacy by design and by default should be the norm. There should be zero-tolerance policies and practices in place for those who seek to exploit vulnerable online users for commercial or sexual purposes.
The children’s internet safety charity gathered data from 3,764 children aged 8 - 12 through its anonymous online survey and found that 93% of pre-teens own a smart device, with tablets (55%) and games consoles (52%) the most popular, followed by smartphones (44%). While 71% of boys owned a games console, just 30% of girls did.
According to the report, 26% of primary school-age children had played an over-18s video game, a figure which rose to 39% of boys.
It also found that 65% of the children surveyed had social media apps — an 8% increase on 2018's figures and despite minimum age restrictions on all of the popular apps being 13 or more.
Of those on social media, just under two-thirds were active users. Worryingly, the report said: "Just under a third (30%) of the children who reported using social media said that they had added strangers as friends or followers" — 9% of children said "lots" and 21% said "some".
One-third of children said they did not know why they had accepted a friend or follow request from someone they did not know, including half of all girls surveyed.
TikTok has replaced Snapchat as the most popular app for this age group, ahead of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitch.
While Tik Tok has made it harder to access its services as an underage user, according to the report: "The 2020 review of age verification mechanisms for the 10 most popular social media apps used by children found that it is possible to get around age restrictions simply by lying about their age."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
