HOWZAT

Being too strict has its own drawbacks. Teenagers who surf the net least face fewest risks, but they also enjoy less chance to broaden their minds, and even the UKCGO report says that restricting access to the internet is a poor strategy for minimising the risks they face. “To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, there is only one thing worse than having access to the internet, and that is not having access,” John Carr says.

Safety filters are an option. They have received a bad press — cast as the equi- valent of Victorians covering piano legs for blocking websites that contain words such as Essex or a recipe for breast of chicken — but they are improving, and certainly the instinct to police teenagers runs deep. A recent BBC poll found that a substantial majority of people wanted the government to impose tougher restrictions on sexual images in children’s magazines and on television, never mind the explicit sexual images that might pop up while a teenager is doing geography homework.

It is a concern because the images available online are of a completely different order from anything covered, or uncovered, in Playboy. Every conceiv-able type of depravity can be found if you look. Limited protection is offered if a credit card is needed to pay for smut, but Sonia Livingstone would, at the very least, like a public debate. “We have a lot of regulations about what’s allowed on the top shelf of newsagents and what is restricted, and it’s the increased pervasiveness of online sexual images that is significant,” she says.

“They just arrive.”

For most children, there isn’t a problem. For all the fears the UKCGO study raises, it found that only 10% of 9- to 19-year-olds go looking for porn. Most access the net for school or college work, with e-mail close behind. The most embarrassing thing Katie McQuaid does is look up horoscopes. Fifteen-year-old Ben used to visit chat rooms, but realised there could be anyone in there (“That put me off”), while Richard would rather talk to his own friends.

Yet parents dare not be complacent. John Carr warns: “The trouble with the internet is that even if 99.9% of children have no problems, 0.1% do, and that’s 12,000 children. That’s a very large number of human beings.”

The good news is that parents can take steps towards understanding what their children get up to online. Last week, the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) published guidelines that urged parents to educate themselves about the internet — ask your child for a tutorial — then agree a few ground rules together. Express an interest in your children’s surfing and friends they may have made in chat rooms: it’s astonishing that most parents have never asked. Discuss favourite sites and encourage them to surf the internet more widely. The UKCGO survey found that half of young surfers stick to fewer than five websites.

“They check out brands and type their homework questions into Google, but they are not gaining the real benefits of going online,” Livingstone says. “Directing them to a wider variety of sites would be the most effective way to direct them away from the risks.”

At best, the net holds a treasure trove of cultural knowledge that the young are uniquely qualified to discover. It’s a parent’s responsibility to keep up.

DECODED: WHAT GOES ON BEHIND THE BEDROOM DOOR

FILE-SHARING Exchanging music and video free is a teenage dream — a third of downloaders are aged between 12 and 19. Fans swap files (illegitimately) through (legitimate) programs such as LimeWire and WinMX, while with broadband, Shark Tale could be downloaded (illegitimately) ahead of its release. Recently, 28 “uploaders” of song files were prosecuted by the record industry, but a greater worry is the risk of contracting a virus from unknown files.

RIPPING The perfectly legal act of transferring music from a compact disc onto a computer’s hard drive. From there, those Maroon 5 tracks can be transferred (burnt) to another disc or to a portable music player.

CHATTING Online chat rooms can be harmless fun when moderated — monitored by a responsible adult. While chatters love to invent new identities, that does not make their intentions malicious. The golden rule is never to give out personal details.

MESSAGING The fastest-growing medium of communication is instant messaging (IM). Teens treat it as a free text alternative to voice calls. Conversations take place in real time at the computer keyboard, between “buddies”, who choose who they want to exchange messages with. Popular programs are MSN Messenger and AOL Messenger.

BLOGGING Boys are just as likely as girls to spend hours writing Dear Diary-style blogs online. Templates come ready-made at hosts such as www.blogger.com, but publishing personal details, such as an e-mail address, will attract unwelcome spam.

DISCUSSION BOARDS Also known as forums, online boards give teenagers a platform to pose embarrassing questions, either to peers or experts, anonymously. Pioneered at YouthNet’s www.thesite.org and the government drugs site www.talktofrank.com.

GAMING Although the average age of gamers has risen to 29, a console remains crucial for a teenage bedroom. Parents should check the suitability of games by referring to their PEGI rating, which ranks games by age and highlights violent content.

James Knight

NOW CLICK HERE

www.parentsonline.gov.uk
www.iwf.co.uk
www.pegi.info/home.jsp www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/help/safesurfing
www.children-go-online.net
www.nch.org.uk/itok
www.kidsmart.org.uk
www.direct.gov.uk/Audiences/Parents/UsingTheInternet/fs/en www.ispa.org.uk

Explore Tech & Web

• Personal Tech

• The Web

• Gadgets & Gaming