ITU social poll: Open communication tops child online safety options
By ITU News
“Open communication” tops the list of methods for keeping children safe and secure on the Internet, based on a social media survey by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
ITU — the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies — conducted the poll among its online followers last week, highlighting its Child Online Protection programme around Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, 7 February.
Open communication edged just ahead of “online trends awareness” among ITU’s respondents on professional networking platform LinkedIn.
Asked to share their top tips for supporting children’s online safety, 31 per cent of the LinkedIn respondents prioritized open communication, followed by 30 per cent opting for online trends awareness, 22 per cent for parental controls, and 16 per cent for agreed boundaries.
Some respondents advocated for “all of the above” and underlined the need to “include monitoring, set ground rules, teach” as key aspects of ensuring a safe online environment for children.
What’s best for your kids?
The ITU Secretary-General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, encouraged her readers to share what works best for them and their children.
“Child online safety has always been personal to me,” she said. “Open communication is key with my kids.”
Bogdan-Martin encouraged the social media community not to miss ITU’s Child Online Protection guidelines and training courses.
Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, added that shared online engagement at home could help build crucial digital skills and awareness from a young age. “A connected, digitally active household can give children the skills to stay safe and secure online. We are committed to developing digital skills for all, and raising awareness on this matter to protect children.” he said.
While all agreed on the need to keep children safe in today’s increasingly complex online world, the preferred methods varied among different user communities and channels.
Trend awareness led the LinkedIn rankings for most of the seven-day period the poll was open, before falling to second place at the very end. On Twitter, by contrast open communication dominated, while trend awareness placed last of the four options offered.
ITU’s respondents on Twitter resoundingly endorsed open communication (45.9 per cent), followed by parental controls (24.3 per cent), agreed boundaries (21.6 per cent), and online trends awareness (8.1 per cent), as key ways to improve child online safety.
Stay tuned to ITU for more Child Online Protection activities.
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