You may have read this morning about the launch of the government’s new child internet safety strategy.
The strategy – called “Click Clever, Click Safe” – has been drawn up by the members of the UK Council on Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), of which TalkTalk is a part. It’s the government’s response to the recommendations set out in Prof Tanya Byron’s review of child safety online, which she published 18 months ago.
Since that time we’ve worked closely with Tanya Byron on our own child safety policies. We’ve launched our Brighter Sparks guide, written by Tanya, to provide principles that parents can apply to the internet use of their kids, whatever their ages. We’ve also launched a product called Magic Desktop which helps young children use computers and the internet safely.
Like our Brighter Sparks guide, the “Click Clever, Click Safe” strategy is based on drawing a parallel between the online and the offline worlds.
The strategy recommends that all primary school children in England should be taught online safety as part of the curriculum, with the centrepiece being an equivalent of the “Green Cross Code” for the internet.
So, just as we wouldn’t let our children cross the road without having spent time teaching them how to do it ourselves, we shouldn’t let them onto the internet without supervision or some education on how to use it safely and responsibly.
When it comes to e-parenting, many of our customers told us they often find it hard to know where to begin. Making comparisons to familiar examples from the real world – like teaching your children how to cross the road or how to swim – is a helpful way of making the task seem less daunting and more manageable.
We strongly support the new “Click Clever, Click Safe” strategy. The internet is a central tool in the education and development of children nowadays, so we think it’s vitally important that they learn how to use it safely.
Teaching internet safety in schools is an important step in achieving this, but we mustn’t forget that most time spent online is in the home. Our research recently found that kids spend 130 minutes a day online – more than two hours – much of it unsupervised.
I was at the strategy launch event and spoke to many of the children, aged between nine and 15, who were there. They underlined again the need for their parents to be as up to speed with the net as they are. That, we hope, is where our Brighter Sparks guide and our eParent Test come in handy.
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