Online safety for young people. Challenges and courses of action

Children and teenagers spend much more time online than adults assume. Of course, they find there a place to build relationships, have fun and learn new things, but they also have easy access to content that can pose direct risks – scams, extortion of private photos or videos, and hateful behaviour. Although these problems have been around for many years, there is still no coherent approach to solving them. There is a need to prepare an educational strategy for children and adults to reduce the impact of the dangers resulting from the use of the internet, including streaming platforms, games and social media (these are the areas most frequently visited by teenagers online, according to the NASK National Research Institute report ‘Teenagers 3.0’). NGOs and business representatives are happy to get involved if the administration decides to prepare it in partnership with them.

The widespread use of the internet by children and teenagers, including the various instant messaging and social media sites, continues to grow faster than the knowledge of the consequences (positive and negative) of their use. What is more, adults (parents and teachers) are not only less digitally literate than children, but also have insufficient information about the behaviour of young people. NGOs that try to educate children and adults are like a ‘patch’ applied to a wound. Instead, we need systemic and methodical action, where education is key. It should be conducted formally, in schools and universities, as well as informally. This is the opinion of experts, such as the representatives of mobile network operators, internet platforms, non-governmental organisations and the media, who discussed the issue of ‘Online safety of young people’ during a meeting organised by the editorial board of ‘Rzeczpospolita’ at the 33rd Economic Forum in Karpacz. They reflected on the challenges and courses of action.

What do children do online that parents never know about?

Parents' image of their child online tends to differ from reality. This is revealed in the study ‘Teenagers 3.0’, carried out for the NASK National Research Institute, and presented by Magdalena Wilczyńska, director of the Cyber Protection Division at the NASK National Research Institute. They show that, on average, in the final years of primary school a student uses the internet for more than five hours a day and a secondary school student for more than six hours. This is almost two hours more than ten years ago and almost four times as much as their parents do.

The expert quoted the results of a study showing the threats: ‘Almost 40% of teenagers have experienced name-calling online, with one in four saying they have been ridiculed or humiliated. At the same time, the majority of parents (60%) say their children have not experienced online violence’. She also added: ‘More than 30% of teenagers have received nude or semi-nude pictures online and one in four have viewed streaming of pathological content. Most parents have no idea about this'.

Few people know that games can also pose threats – popular unboxing or skin trading are often outright gambling schemes.

How should adults react?

The simplest solution, a simple ban, is the least effective. Participants exchanged insights as to why it is not enough, for example, to take away children's phones during lessons. They focused on schools, but the same arguments apply to the time children spend at home.

‘The “no use” ban is easy to circumvent. A much better solution is to introduce rules that pupils understand: rules for when they can use their phones and on what terms’, said Julian Wąsek from Foundation Szkoła 2.0. Both he and the other participants agreed that digital education is important.

It was also emphasised that, for children, the time spent online using their phones (which is how they use the internet most often) is to a large extent a time for playing and communicating with others, so if adults forbid this kind of entertainment, they should have an interesting alternative for children.

‘If a school does not want children to spend time online, then it should offer them an interesting way to spend their time, allowing them to build social relationships, not only during lessons, but also during breaks’, says Agnieszka Jankowska of T-Mobile Poland, chairwoman of the Digital Council.

What may pose a threat?

Education should be the basis of all activities, the experts admitted. Tailored to age, both in terms of messages and channels of communication. Adults, including parents, guardians and teachers, have a crucial role here. They are overwhelmingly unaware of the complexity of the situation faced by young people, nor do they know how to recognise and respond to threats. In order to communicate the necessary information, they must not only have the relevant knowledge, but also apply it in their everyday lives. The participants cited the common posting of photos of children on social media sites as an example of parents' carelessness. Parents act as if they do not understand that the photo does not disappear after the holidays or as their children get older. It can create serious problems in the future.

Fake news, manipulation, misinformation, sexual content, paedophilia, grooming (a relationship created through an ICT system or ESPD between adults and children, aiming to seduce and sexually abuse children), gambling or hate speech. Research confirms that parents are not always aware of what their children are exposed to online. At the same time, parents are the most trusted source of knowledge and support for teenagers in difficult situations, so their role is invaluable.

‘Authority figures are changing, and teenagers often find them online. Children participate in online challenges that can be dangerous to their health,' said Paulina Kędzierska’, president of the research circle for young people interested in politics.

‘While it is easy to explain what pornography is, discussing hate speech is more difficult’, said Michał Kanownik, president of Digital Poland Association.

‘Students are not always aware of how much damage they can do with their comments, or that if they upload something once, it stays online for years. By spending a lot of time online, they live in an illusion’, added Katarzyna Sokołowska of Save the Children International Foundation.

Education needs to start keeping up with the development of the internet

‘The changing digital landscape requires constant adaptation, said Łukasz Gabler, Public Policy Manager for CEE at TikTok. He added that in learning how to use the internet, social media should be a process that deepens as digital techniques develop. It should not focus only on students, it has to be adapted to the needs and skills of students and adults.

Many NGOs provide basic knowledge about the use of social media, such as instant messaging, in a simple and understandable way for adults as well. ‘Unfortunately, we do not have a culture of lifelong learning, and using the internet requires this’, said Piotr Mieczkowski, Managing Director of Digital Poland Foundation.

The participants acknowledged that joint action is needed from all stakeholders concerned with the internet and raising children. Individual actions are not enough. When discussing directions and methods of action, they highlighted formal education. ‘Teachers need support, they cannot be alone’, said Agnieszka Jankowska about the Council's efforts to encourage the ministries of health, digitalisation, education and science to act together. To date we have not achieved full success.

An educational offer for educators is needed (a pilot programme is carried out by the NASK National Research Institute and the Ministry of Digitalisation, lesson plans are in preparation), but also a change in the curriculum. Learning about cyber-security and internet literacy should either be a separate subject or should be integrated into existing subjects. ‘During IT classes, children still learn to use desktop computers, even though most of them use smartphones and applications developed for them’, said Łukasz Gabler.

Companies use self-regulation

However, the actions of companies cannot focus solely on education, they also rely on self-regulation, Łukasz Gabler reminded us. As an example, he mentioned partnerships undertaken by the company with experts, but also solutions introduced by TikTok in terms of automatic labelling of AI-created content, disinformation recognition systems or, for example, the introduction of automatic screen time limits for teenagers. Some solutions were also introduced into the platform long before they were required by regulations, e.g. the DSA.

The participants expressed regret that, despite the invitation, a broad representation of the state administration was absent during the discussion. Without their participation, it is difficult not only to create a legal framework, but also to prepare and disseminate a code of good practice that includes the best solutions to protect children and teenagers online. This initiative was launched some time ago by the Digital Council. The debate participants agreed that all stakeholders in the online market should be signatories to such an agreement.

Photograph caption:

PARTNER: TIKTOK

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