8-year-olds in daily online chat with strangers
Most eight-year-olds have their own smart device allowing them internet access and one in five have already appeared in a YouTube video, research shows.
The likelihood of their parents knowing what they are up to is limited as a third said they rarely or never talked about online safety with a parent.
More than 1,200 eight- to 10-year-olds were surveyed for the study and while 79% of the eight-year-olds reported having their own mobile phone, tablet, PC, iPod, gaming console, or other smart devices that allowed them to access the internet, that figure rose to 92% for the 10-year-olds.
The figure excludes children who do not have a device of their own but are allowed to use a parent’s device.
Tablets are the most popular device — owned by more than half those surveyed — but smartphone ownership is also high, with 21% of eight-year-olds having their own, rising to 25% of children aged nine and 34% of those aged 10.
Some 40% of the children said they use their device to communicate with strangers and 15% said they are doing this at least once a week — some of them every day.
Some were also spending a huge amount of time online and of the 10% who spent more than four hours a day online, one in four are regularly playing over-18s games containing violent and sexual content.
More than 33% of all the children surveyed rarely or never discuss issues around online safety with their parents.
The survey was carried out by the CyberSafeIreland charity in advance of Safer Internet Day. A previous survey had produced similar results but was conducted among children up to the age of 13, so the fact that the findings emerge from a younger group has caused concern.
“Our survey highlights that children are actively engaged in the online world from a young age,” said CyberSafeIreland CEO Alex Cooney.
“The vast majority of eight-year-olds have their own smart device, almost half are using social media and one in five have appeared in a YouTube video.”
That is despite the fact that the digital age of consent is 16 and that many social media services claim to exclude under 13s.
While most children and many parents regard online engagement as harmless fun, the newest member of the charity’s board has a grim warning.
Detective Sergeant Mick Moran has worked at Interpol’s Crimes Against Children Department where he was involved in cases of child exploitation. He said the internet is the tool of choice for abusers.
“We need to turn the tide on online child exploitation and abuse,” he said.
“We know that literally thousands of child sex abuse victims have been identified in recent years by Interpol and its global network and this is only the tip of the iceberg.
“We need to work together to find meaningful solutions and today is a reminder of our joint responsibility to empower children to protect themselves.”
Safer Internet Day began as an EU initiative 15 years ago but has since spread worldwide and now acts as a focal point for governments, tech companies, parents, schools, and children to share ideas and experiences about children in the online world and promote awareness and practical advice for parents.
Protecting children online: Key tips
Numerous organisations provide reading material and advice for parents on understanding and monitoring their child’s internet usage.
Some useful sites include: cybersafeireland.org, webwise.ie, and internetsafety.ie.
Internet providers also often provide information on their business websites.
Some of the key tips are summarised here by CyberSafeIreland.
Help children understand your concerns and the dangers that drive them.
Help them understand that they need to be aware of their own safety and that they can always come to you if they’ve been on a site or in an online conversation where they shouldn’t be.
Open and use the sites and services your children want to use or are already using.
Look to see if it has a chat facility and if so, find out how to disable it.
Look for and check the device’s settings relating to safety and privacy.
The most popular social media apps currently for 8-to-10-year-olds are Snapchat, WhatsApp, and TikTok (formerly Musical.ly) but the apps and appetites change, so you have to monitor for the latest craze.
Set out appropriate boundaries for where your child can use their device, who can be on their friends lists, what behaviour is acceptable — by them and towards them.
No child should chat to a stranger online.
No child should share their location.
Check the device’s settings to see if you can block this.
Find out how to report abuse so that if you or your child comes across something inappropriate or receives an unwanted approach, you know where to go to raise the alert quickly.