Internet safety surgeries?
Since 2009, we've been working on the project to get young people talking about issues to do with the Internet -supporting discussions and involving policy-makers with a view to influencing policy and action. There's still time to get involved (contact us), but we're also doing a lot of evaluating and writing up.
Many people we've met throughout the project have identified gaps in Internet safety training -especially for parents. It's been said a few times that young people seem to be more confident in using the Internet than their parents, which could make it difficult to get their support if problems arose.
Two things have inspired me to write this post today.
- The publication of the Final Report from the EU Kids Online project: Risks and safety on the internet: The perspective of European Children. http://ow.ly/3DISa
- The progress of the Edinbuzz Social Media Surgeries
(Note that the HUWY target age group starts roughly where the EU Kids project ends, at 16)
Could the Social Media Surgery model be followed for Internet safety?
Obviously there are differences:
- Internet safety training could usefully include a 3 way model, with parents/ young people or children/trainers or facilitators.
- Young people could be the primary trainers with 3rd parties facilitating as necessary.
- Any event involving children would have a whole load of extra considerations and may be best left to people working with children.
A couple more thoughts:
- The EU Kinds report suggests "internet safety messaging should seek to build confidence, resilience and digital citizenship skills among children" p9. (It's a long report, but it does start with a very useful summary.
- Youth workers at HUWY (and Young Scot) events have asked about guidelines for using social media with young people -lists of available guidelines, working with young people to create guidelines etc.
What do you think?
