Internet Safety For Parents & Grandparents

1. Internet SafetyFor Parents & Grandparents Laura Hubbs-Tait, Ph.D. Regents Professor Cooperative Extension Parenting Specialist Human Development and Family Science

2. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? • Consider the source: • Data sources for information on children and the internet: • Marketing Research – for profit, selling ads • Marketing to kids – games, phones, music, etc. • Marketing to parents – “protect your kids” • Survey Research Centers – nonprofit • Social Science Research Publications – usually university sponsored research

3. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? What does marketing research tell us? Child Wise (United Kingdom) http://prezi.com/2itsvqxabjlf/children-and-their-media-2012/ Highlights of Child Wise press release: 5 to 16 year olds: • 71% have a mobile phone with internet access • 51% use that mobile phone to access the internet • Average more than 60 minutes/day on mobile phone activities other than calls. • More than half had accessed Facebook in the previous week • 39% of participants who had visited Facebook were under 13 • Media total: 5.2 hours 2.5 hours TV + 1.6 hours gaming + 1.1 hours mobile phone=5.2 http://www.tnooz.com/2012/01/26/news/kids-today-travellers-of-the-future-and-how-they-consume-media-now/

4. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? So what about U.S.?-USA Today from Ypulse (profit) • Teens are using other social media such as Foursquare and Tumblr (microblog like Twitter). • Facebook wants children under 13 to have a Facebook page with parental supervision. • Do teens want more privacy (response to parents as Facebook friends) and so turn to apps and networks with less supervision? http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-06-20/facebook-teens/55723500/1 • Other media used by teens: Instagram, a new "app" for sharing photos; ooVoo video chat; blogs and microblogs

5. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? • Not-for-profit research: • http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data-(Teens)/Online-Activites-Total.aspx • Teen Internet Use (799 parents and 770 teens) • 93% of 12- to 17-year old “teens” access the internet (teens: 95%) • Teen Social Networking Use • 75% participate in a social network (80% of teens say “yes”)

6. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? Pew Internet and American Life Project Supervision – parents discuss • 93% - ways of using internet safely • 87% - behavior toward others online (aka: netiquette) • 87% - what teen has been doing online • 94% - what teen should and should not share online • Parent Supervision of social networking • 80% of parents of social networking teens are their children’s friends • Pew Internet and American Life Project

7. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? So what about U.S.? - marketing research • Much more of an alarmist picture: Toptenreviews • http://facebook-parental-controls-review.toptenreviews.com/30-statistics-about-teens-and-social-networking.html • Note that this is targeted toward marketing software for parental controls of social media

8. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? • Youth Internet Safety Surveys: 2000, 2005, 2010 http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/internet-crimes/papers.html • Three categories of online dangers surveyed each year: Down but still disturbing Up - Includes cyberbullying Down but still disturbing Jones, L.M., Mitchell, K.J. & Finkelhor, D. (2012). Trends in youth Internet victimizations: Findings from three youth Internet safety surveys, 2000 – 2010. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50: 179-186.

9. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? • Stanford University researchers - March 2012 • 8- to 12-year-old girls: media (video, music, homework, phone talk, email/posts/text/chat), F2F communication, and well-being • Media multi-tasking = additional media used when a child is using one already. Mean = 1.4 (i.e., 1.4 above the first) • What predicts SLEEP? • Negatively: TV in room, video use of media, online communication use, cell phone ownership, age. • Above and beyond these: media multi-tasking • Positively: face-to-face (F2F) communication • What predicts # friends who are bad influence? • Phone talk, online talk/chat/posts/email, video use, and media multitasking • F2F communication was negatively related – the more F2F, the lower the number of bad influence friends

10. Internet Safety: Kids’ Stuff? • “Cute young adult websites”: not cute for pre-teens • www.someecards.com • www.reddit.com

11. What Can Parents and Grandparents Do? • Parenting style: authoritative • Warm and affectionate with high limits and expectations • Parent-child attachment: secure • Sensitive and responsive to the needs of the infant/child – from birth • Open and frequent communication • Related to attachment and parenting style • Can be improved in parent education programs All of the above recommendations are based on recent research findings.

12. What Can Parents and Grandparents Do? • Check the History in a Browser – • Records 20 days – or more. • History can be set to delete on Exit.   • To check this, Open Internet Explorer, Click on Tools (if it's not visible hit the Alt key), then Internet Options.  In the middle of the window you will see a checkbox titled "Delete browsing history on Exit."   • This checkbox should NOT be checked. • Free software: K9 Web Protection by BlueCoat (www.k9webprotection.com).   • This tool installs to your Windows or Mac and links to web browsers.   • You set a password to it so that your children can't access it or sites you don't want them to visit.   • Instantly blocks harmful sites (pornography, violence, gambling