By Jo Best, 15 September 2004 13:30
NEWS The government has proclaimed it's going to tackle the morass of internet miscreants. With a publicity campaign.
The campaign will kick off with Parents Online week next month, when the government will launch new advertising on the radio and internet that will advise kids how to keep safe when they're using the web.
A Home Office spokesman said that children and young people "are aware of the issues, which have been around since 2001 when we started the campaign. We're trying to reinforce the message... when they're at their most vulnerable."
Home Office minister Paul Goggins claimed at the Promoting Mobile and Internet Safety Conference that the UK was leading the world at protecting children online. He also quoted statistics from the Home Office saying that 89 per cent of kids knew that they shouldn't give out details about themselves online.
However, a recent report from the London School of Economics, UK Children UK Online, found that half of all children had provided some element of information - for example, name age, address, email address or phone number - to someone they met on the internet. One-third of children between nine and 19 years old had received unwanted sexual or otherwise unpleasant comments while online.
"The safety advice not to give out personal details to other people they meet online seems to have gained a fair familiarity amongst young people, but there remains considerable scope for improved safety practices," the LSE report said.
In its safety drive, Whitehall is also teaming up with mobile companies and the police to work on preventing kids' phones getting nicked and on designing out crime.
Several mobile operators have already signed up to a scheme to prevent under-18 customers accessing adult content including porn and gambling sites, but so far only Vodafone has implemented the scheme.
Comments
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1. fred frag
How can the the UK be the safest online when the internet has no boundaries ?
If the goverment is so keen on promoting safe surfing for children then why not give out free copies of surf control or similar to children ? after all there happy to promote safe sex and give out free condoms !!!
2. Drew Edgar
Right on Fred!
You wouldn't expect this government of hyperbole to proclaim that England, Scotland, the principality of Wales and the province of Ulster were the least safe would you?
Doubtless we shall hear this rubbish revamped in a different way in the not too distant future.
As for safe sex etc. this government is certainly NOT taking the necessary steps to prevent the spread of the HIV-AIDS pandemic with public health advertising etc.
Most notable by its absence is the negligent failure to screen/test travellers from outside the UK who are infected and to deny them entry into the UK.
This is the 21st Century plague for which there is no cure & knowingly passing on the disease is nothing less than the murder of another human being.
Dr K. Williams, Director of Public Health for Coventry Area, last year reported a 1,500% increase in new cases over two years previous, principally heterosexual.
Attributing the increase to "an influx of students & asylum seekers he said "The vast majority acquired the infection from abroad."
Of the new cases, 59% were recent arrivals from Africa, whether legal or illegal.
You will not hear the Minister for Health volunteering this testament to the Government's indifference for the health of UK subjects!
3. Alistair Thomas
Every now and again I'm tempted to comment on these stories and the key thread of this one that drew me in was naivety.
I've given up expecting anything real from this government or indeed most of the current crop of politicians. They all appear to lying, cheating, self serving, arrogant, conceited individuals who wouldn't know how to spell 'public service' let alone live it.
It's typical that politicians should take something that worries a lot of us, pronouce some sound bites but without the slightest clue about how they might be achieved.
The author is naive to think that suppliers could be regulated to supply a lecture with every piece of kit sold. In a commodity market, buyers want the most product for the least price. Any supplier taking on this public duty would be immediately undercut by those less scrupulous. Legislating to enforce it is ridiculous - we are nannied enough by this bunch of hyprocites as it is. One rule for the prols, and the political elite carry on doing whatever they think is best for them (private education and the MMR jab to name but two examples).
The bottom line is that people in this country have to wake up and take responsibility for themselves, whether it be safe sex or vetting the various media our kids are exposed to. A government can only help those who are willing to help themselves.
Governments have a duty to educate us on important issues and then empower us to make the right choices. Unfortunately, this government has lied to us so often and key players are seen to ignore their own advice that in this primary role of advisors they are utterly discredited.
One last point on this rant. This issue of keeping our kids safe on the net is just one symptom of a much larger problem.
In this country many people want to own their own home. In the last 30-40 years we've built a rat-race where it now requires 2 professional people working 5 days a week to afford a 3-up 2-down house in suburbia. Young responsible couples have to put off thoughts of family until they have saved enough to afford that 1-bed apartment. Where is the time we badly need to make sure our kids learn the lessons they need? Where is the energy in the time we do have to 'be good parents' when our work demands so much of us?
My dad was a humble elecrician. He had 3 kids by the time he was 25 and a mortgage on his 3-up, 2-down. I learnt to read and write at my mother's knee, and an army of stay-at-home mums all shared a responsibility to keep us kids safe when we were out and about. My parents didn't expect the teachers or the government to be responsible for my moral code. They gave me my values and they vetted everything I was given. Today, this a luxury few of us can afford. An awful lot of babies have been thrown out with the proverbial bath water in the drive for 'progress', and a few people have got very rich on the back of property speculation that has resigned the rest of us to drudgery just to have the essentials of life.
It's taken us 30 years to get into this mess and it may take 30 years to fix it. Problem is we have got to make a start, and that means every single person in this country taking their responsibility seriously and not always expecting someone else to manage for us or for looking for someone else to blame when things go wrong.
Any politician that tells you he can fix the sort of problem this article refers to is either lying or is delluded. I look forward to the day when a politician indentifies the problems, asks for my help and that of my fellow citizens to fix it, and actively leads from the front. Oh dear, now I'm being naive.
4. Simon Rhodes
I agree with Alistair.
Perhaps the country should be split into two.
One half for people who take responsibility for themselves, their families and their communities.
The other, a nanny state for the "can't be bothered" group of sheep, who expect society to solve their problems and entertain them.