EU Action Plan on promoting safer use of the Internet - the CISA project |
Report of the "Safer Surfing Week" in Austria
As part of the CISA project which is co-financed under the EU Action Plan for Internet awareness, LAK organised "The Safer Surfing Week" for children aged from 6 to 12 years in five towns in Lower Austria. This was done in cooperation with libraries, schools and youth clubs which provided the rooms, the computers and access to the Internet. A lot of activities focussing on the Internet and on the safety issue in the world wide web awaited the kids: an Internet rally, a quiz and the "Cyber Spider Board Game".
The children should:
2. Preparation, organisation and development
a) Location:
First of all there was the question where these workshops could take place. This was not an easy task to solve. Some people we asked did not want to participate because they did not see the necessity children learning more about the Internet whereas others could not cooperate with us because they did not have the equipment (for example, computers or access to the Internet).
Finally we found 5 locations spread throughout the province of Lower Austria which had the infrastructure and were also willing to cooperate:
b) Period and date
The "Safer Surfing Week" took place in the winter holidays from the 4th to the 8th of February 2002. The "Cyber Spider Patrol" (the staff who worked with the children) stayed two days in each town.
In the evening information was offered to parents.
c) Branding: "Cyber Spider" and development of the "Cyber Spider Board Game"
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We had been looking for a symbol or a logo that could be associated with the Internet and also its possible risks without being negative. It also had to be suitable for children. The "Cyber Spider" met those necessary requirements: The cobweb symbolizes the world wide web with its infinite number of connections and links; a spider is a very helpful animal who catches insects and kills them; So the "Cyber Spider" stands for safety and protection of children in the Internet. At the same time the cobweb turned out to be a suitable background for a board game where it again symbolizes the Internet. |
Cyber Spider Board Game
In this game the players have to find their way through the web until they reach the "Cyber Spider" which is placed in the centre. Several things slow down the children on their way but only some might help them to finish sooner:
To play the game you need a special dice. It shows the numbers 1 and 2 and the Cyber Spider. If a child throws a 1 or 2, she can move forward this number of spaces. But if the dice shows the Cyber Spider, he has to pick up a card and follow its instructions. All of the instructions on the cards are presented in the form of Internet Explorer browser symbols (the most commonly used). According to the symbol or the question, a child may go backward or forward some spaces.
Finally, the one who has solved the problems in a quick and clever way is the winner of the game.
d) Safety guidelines for the children
With the help of all the activities the children should learn the most important rules about safe behaviour in the Internet. They have already been published in several media (various articles in different kinds of papers), at parents evenings and are printed on a mouse mat for children:
I don't open attachments of people I don't know because they might contain a virus.
I don't answer e-mails that sound strange.
I tell an adult person if something makes me feel uncomfortable or frightens me
I don't give personal information about myself to anybody (like address, telephone number, etc.).
I only chat in a children's chat room.
I don't believe everything because anybody can tell things about himself that need not be true.
I pay special attention if I'm asked to spend money (shopping, winning game, betting, etc.)
I never meet alone with a person I only know through the Internet.
Proceedings:
Two collaborators of the department of media education at LAK developed the following evaluation criteria and by means of them selected 50 web sites. Then on the basis of these criteria, a team of 6 people chose 20 web sites to be recommended and published as the final list.
Problems of the Evaluation
It turned out to be not as easy as we had imagined to find the best 20 web pages for children aged from 6 to 12. As there are only a few Austrian websites, the collaborators decided to select between all German-language children's websites. Apart from abiding by data protection laws, it was essential that the web page is updated and maintained often so that the children are encouraged to visit it regularly and find new things on it if they do so.
Unfortunately a lot of web sites do not function all the time or are sometimes overloaded so that they have been taken out of our list. Besides that, some sites were struck off the list because commercial interests were too obvious and they were considered as influencing the kids in a negative way.
Evaluation Criteria:
The following criteria are taken from the booklet for parents and educators ("Safer kids online – sicher durch's Internet") and are put in form of questions, which makes it easier to check whether a web page is suitable for children or not. We collected a lot of questions that may be useful to decide on how to evaluate a web site. It was not necessarily that every question had to be answered in an extremely positive way. The most important thing was that children might like the site and do not take a risk by using it.
20 websites that were selected: (in alphabetical order):
Meetings of Collaborators
From the beginning of the project the team of collaborators, who have been working with the children in the Safer Surfing Week, met at least once a month: The project leaders presented their ideas which were afterwards discussed with 4 to 5 people who are also involved in the topic "safety in the Internet". These meetings have been organised to brainstorm possible ways to foster kids' competent Internet use, to exchange information, to evaluate websites suitable for children and to test the working material.
Booklet for parents and educators
In the course of the preparation of the workshop, a booklet of 76 pages for parents and educators "Safer kids online – sicher durch's Internet" has been developed. It is not a guidebook about the Internet itself but the target is to inform the reader about safety aspects. In this booklet you can find information about filter software, recommended sites for children, about how often children use of the Internet, about hotlines where you can report pornographic or fascist contents etc.
At each location two people from LAK staff worked for two days with the children. At the beginning the children were asked to fill out a short questionnaire about their way of using the Internet, about their favourite web sites and whether they knew or got tips from their parents or other educational people with reference to safe behaviour on the Internet.
After that they had the opportunity to choose between various activities that had been prepared specially for this workshop. All these activities had been graded in two levels of difficulty so that kids who didn't have much experience with the Internet had the chance to obtain the Cyber Spider Surfing Card for being a competent and clever Internet user.
For the Internet Rally the children had to surf the Internet and find the correct answers to seven questions which mainly concerned the safe use of the Internet.
For the Quiz the kids did not have to use the Internet: 8 situations of communication on the Internet were described and the children had to pick out one of three possible answers.
Another possible activity was the Cyber Spider Board Game that was designed for up to 4 players. In this game the children had to find their way through the cobweb by answering questions, doing activities, etc.
The children also got the list of the 20 recommended websites and were asked to choose their favourite one and so take part in a winning game. Prizes included for example the mouse-mat with safety rules printed on it or the Cyber Spider Board Game, Lego blocks and books.
Responses of children and parents
Children:
The response of the children and the parents to this project was enormous. The children were so fascinated by the activities that they did not want to leave when they were picked up. They showed incredible endurance and motivation and were eager to do all the activities. Even those who had already been working on the computer for some hours with a lot of concentration still wanted to find out what else they could do and try out. They came back the second day to do the next level and to continue experiencing the recommended sites.
The children did not have to sit in front of the computer all the time but could to do other things like drawing, building and play other games as well as read books (in the library) so they would not get bored if the computers were being used. They really seemed to have a lot of fun and to enjoy playing the Cyber Spider Game - they wanted to play it over and over again. In general they worked and played with a lot of concentration and always asked for further stimulus and input. Many children who did the easier exercises first, then rapidly wanted to do the more difficult ones. They gave the impression that they liked the spectrum of activities, the various possibilities to play and learn. Most of the children asked whether there would be a continuation or further activities and seemed disappointed when hearing that it was not possible to offer them for more than two days. We indicated that we might come back during other holidays.
Parents/educators:
All of the parents welcomed the idea and the implementation of this workshop. They were even more enthusiastic when they realized that their children learned a lot while having fun. They enjoyed getting to know about quality sites where they could visit with their children. Some parents thought that this project would be a good idea for children who did not go away in their holidays whereas others even demanded further activities or workshops on a regular basis.
However, some parents admitted lacking knowledge about the risks of Internet use and how to protect their children. They showed a lot interest at the parents evenings where they could receive tips and guidelines.
As children spend a lot of time using the Internet, parents were urged to look into it and to become aware of the possible risks as well as the opportunities it affords. Parents evenings in collaboration with schools can stimulate awareness and areasked for by schools (including nursery schools).
Thus we were in need of trained speakers and organized a two days parents/instructors training course. (see special report). As part of the "Safer Surfing Week" we got in contact with other parents and realised once again that we can make a big contribution to parental knowledge about the Internet just answering some questions while they were picking up their children. It is necessary to know what the risks are to be able to give support to the children and to guide them in their use of the Internet.
Research made it obvious that parents don't know much about what their children do on the Internet and they are not well equipped to be partners in communicating with their children about it – let alone actually guiding them through it. Too often they lack knowledge about the Internet in general. Parent's meetings not only to inform parents but they are also important for the exchange of experience with other parents.
The need for portals and for other safety measures develops out of more knowledge about the risks of the Internet – but then parents need training to be able to use technical solutions. Special training activities for parenting in the 21st century are on the way.
Report on the visit to a day care centre to discuss safety tips
In January 2002, LAK personnel visited pupils in a day care centre in Vienna to talk with them about safety in the Internet and how to protect yourself from possible risks. Twenty out of the twenty one pupils interviewed have Internet access at home and frequently use it.
Although the Internet is a very current topic which is often brought up for discussion, only a few children talk with their parents at home about rules on how to use the Internet in order not to get into trouble. Parents mainly are concerned with the amount of time being spent online (which costs a lot) and they try to reach an agreement about the amount of time the children are allowed to spend surfing, chatting etc. "I'm only allowed to stay on the Internet for a short time" was a statement mentioned quite often.
It turned out that kids often make use of the Internet together with someone else – this person may be an adult, a friend, brother or sister. "I often chat together with my elder sister. That's always quite funny." Only a few of the children use the Internet on their own.
Besides that it emerged that many children think that they know a lot about the risks they might face on the net but the only thing they associate with risks are viruses.
The kids seemed to be very interested in this topic and asked questions like, "Is it possible to send a virus to one of my friends?" , or, "Where does the virus come from or who creates them?"
The only rule the kids knew for using the Internet was to use a nickname for chatting or signing in. "On the Internet my name is Marina. I like this name". However, the children know little to nothing about other risks and so it was necessary to talk about how to behave on the Internet and to work out some other guidelines. For example, one of them is not to meet with an unknown person alone in a private place.
Furthermore the educators talked about credibility on the Internet. One girl for instance said, "On the Internet 90% is false, a friend of mine read that in the newspaper."
The interest shown by the children in the discussions about the Internet shows very clearly that they want to get more background information and that they are competent partners in the discussion; they don't only want to know what happens but rather why it happens and what everyone can do to avoid problems. This may be one reason why they reacted so positively and emotively while talking about this topic.
Consequences and further actions
Further actions:
