- guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 18 2001 03.49 GMT
- The Observer, Sunday March 18 2001
Information technology still puzzles many adults, including most parents. Kierra, 15, said: 'My mum is crap at anything with an "on" button really.' And her mother is typical - a survey by Amazon.com, the internet bookshop, last year found that 75 per cent of children had helped their parents to solve computer problems.
More mystifying still are the chat rooms - websites where complete strangers can talk to each other about whatever they like, with as much anonymity as they wish. 'Chat rooms are great,' said Ben, 14, 'because you can make up so much about yourself.'
But there are people, such as paedophiles, waiting to take advantage. Kierra said: 'Bad things about chat-rooms are people who lie all the time. Like, "Honest, I'm 14." Except I'm a 55-year-old bald man named Malcolm. Or he'll say, "My name's Sadie, I'm 13 and I like Barbie. Do you?"'
Unlike Kierra, many teenagers don't recognise the dangers. Rachel O'Connell, director of research at the Cyberspace Research Unit, in Preston, Lancashire, said: 'When teenagers go online for the first time, many are not aware of the warning signs - like when somebody asks for personal information, or asks to meet them offline [in the real world]. Those kinds of requests should set off alarm bells in teenagers' heads, just as the sound of an oncoming car would warn them not to step out into the street.'
But some parents tend to overreact. O'Connell said: 'It would be such a shame if parents panicked about the internet and stopped their children using it, because it's such a wonderful place.
'A much more effective way to ensure a child's safety would be to go through the safety guidelines with them. Just as they would teach a child to cross the road safely, parents should initially accompany their children online.'
Safety guidelines are freely available on dozens of websites, including cyberangels.com and chatdanger.com. O'Connell is working on an EU-funded project to bring education about online safety into schools and homes.
• Children's Express is a programme of learning through journalism for young people aged from eight to 18. This article was produced by Abeyna Jones and Tinu Adeniji-Adele, 17, and Jonathan Hudson, 14.
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