Protecting children - Supervision is essential

IT seems almost cruel to expect the parents of young children to take on another responsibility their own parents could not even have imagined.

However, the advances and the intrusions brought by new media make some sort of supervisory role essential.

Yesterday EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, pointed out that most children using social networking sites do not use privacy settings.

Research found that 77% of the EU’s 13 to 16-year-olds have profiles on social networks, while among nine to 12-year-olds, 38% are on sites such as Facebook or MySpace. One-fifth of those with public profiles display their phone number or address.

Such innocence is endearing but it is reckless too. Over 100 million people will use Europe’s networking sites within two years. The burden of protecting children falls on their parents and it would help if children could understand why their involvement is wise and should be welcomed.