A new survey released to mark Safer Internet Day has found 82 per cent of young children (8-12 year olds) are allowed to use phones and other smart devices unsupervised in their bedrooms.
The findings from CyberSafeKids - from a survey of over 2,000 primary school children - highlight a significant lack of parental engagement in monitoring online activities.
To mark Safer Internet Day, CyberSafeKids has launched its fourth ‘Same Rules Apply’ awareness campaign in order to empower parents with essential knowledge for safeguarding their children online.
A notable 28 per cent of the children reported that they could go online whenever they wanted.
The survey reveals an alarming lack of parental oversight: only 35 per cent of children said their parents or caregivers can see what they are doing online.
Alex Cooney, CEO of CyberSafeKids, said; "We’ve long seen a trend in our survey data highlighting a disconnect between children and their parents about what children are doing online. We urgently need to provide better support to parents so they feel more confident about engaging with their children about their online activity, setting limits around use and access, using parental controls and even holding off on giving children devices or access to social media, if they feel their child is not ready. There is too much social pressure for children to be online and in many cases it’s before they are ready. Our Same Rules Apply campaign seeks to support parents in approaching children’s online lives with the same care and supervision that we apply to their offline lives. It’s not all on parents, however, Big Tech needs to be compelled to create safer online spaces for children too."
What is Safer Internet Day?
Celebrated in approximately 180 countries worldwide, Safer Internet Day (SID) is a landmark event in the online safety calendar. In previous years, almost 200,000 people in Ireland took part in Safer Internet Day activities, events and campaigns to explore a range of online safety topics including cyberbullying, rights online, mis/disinformation online, privacy and more.
Everyone including children/young people, parents/caregivers, teacher/schools, policymakers, industry and others plays a role in helping to encourage safe, positive use of digital technology and the Internet, and to raise awareness of a safer and better internet for all, and especially for children and young people.
Safer Internet Day 2025 takes place today, Tuesday, February 11th.
Why is it important?
With so much of our time spent online, it has never been more important to empower people, especially children and teenagers, with the knowledge and skills to know how to be safe, responsible and positive users of digital technology and the internet.
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