The average week's news often features at least one story of a child who landed on the wrong side of some kind of internet communication -- often simultaneously tragic and lurid tales of encounters with sexual predators. Although nearly two decades online have rendered me mostly amused by such popcult internet paranoia, I'm also an aunt to three young children; two of them are old enough to know their Gmail from their Youtube. So these stories can disturb me just as much as they might worry any "soccer mom" or "NASCAR dad."
But according to a survey released last week by a European commission, kids are more aware of the need to protect their own safety when they use the internet and mobile phones than adults realize:
The survey results, released Friday, found that most kids use the Internet several times a day and, while Internet use is to some extent limited by parents, most own their own mobile phones, the use of which is largely unsupervised.The survey also found that children are much more attuned to such potential online risks as security, viruses, identity theft and potential dangerous contact with strangers than parents imagine, and that they tend to know about the necessary precautions.
The survey also apparently found that children ably justify illegal downloads. Oh well -- can't have everything. At least they seem to be able to tell Uncle Ernies from Auntie Ems.
(Link to full Reuters story. Via SmartMobs)
