Teletimes April 2011.pdf

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personal information for gifts, register for club memberships, sign up to receive games, and give up personal information in chat rooms. All of these information fetching techniques are affecting kids. c. Exposure to inappropriate Images and Content The open nature of Internet with regards to access of any particular type of content is what presently could be taken as a very serious challenge to protect our kids online. It’s as simple as putting a sexual word inside a search engine and getting thousands of pages inviting to browse the relevant content. This exposure to inappropriate images and content is more unsafe in developing countries like ours, where this upcoming generation of teenagers has an access to Internet at private places like net clubs with no restriction at all. Moreover, the parents generally are almost unaware of Internet and its usage; thus they are not able to guide their children about the pros and cons of open Internet access. Measuring the Child Online Safety Given the multitude of happenings and activities related to use of internet by Children, concerns in regards to sufficient and coordinated input, efficient and effective processes for child online protection arise, these concerns should enlighten us in terms of how well we are doing and what else should be done. Question arises, can we measure the efficiency and effectiveness of Child Online Safety? Here comes the critical value of “process indicators” that articulate where do we stand and how to improve on certain areas, what areas need attention and how to emphasize efficiency and effectiveness to these areas. On International forums, various discussions and methodologies are being developed on kinds of data that need to be collected, benchmarks that need to be established? All of these issues could be tackled through coordinated approach. Survey on Child Online Protection Assessment in Pakistan (Oct 2010) M/s Paradigm Technologies (private research company) carried out survey in Oct 2010 to assess and investigate Internet usage and its trends among age group of 8-18 years. The survey was carried out inline with ITU’s indicators outlined in “Child online protection CoP Initiative”. The survey also measured and evaluated online risks and opportunities. A sample size of 1,127 was considered. Sample size included 717 Parents and guardians, 300 teachers and 200 kids. The samples were collected through a face-to-face interaction through a survey form and also through online survey form. The key findings of the survey are summarized below along with graphical representation. According to the survey, home Internet access to children is quite high. 89% of the survey participants told that their kids in different age groups are using Internet at home. The interesting fact is that young children from 8-14 age groups are having a growing usage pattern for the Internet which shows a requirement for evaluating the ‘Child Online Protection’ policy framework inside the country. Several questions were asked to measure the level of attention parents confer to assess the online activities of their children. Responses show that generally parents are not attentive towards the online issues that are putting their children at risk. They are also not interested in monitoring their children online habits at large, the primary reason behind could be the lack of time and lack of general awareness among the parents. This really is an alarming situation requiring immediate intervention from both public and private institutes to enable safe Internet access to our young users. A couple of questions were exclusively asked from the kids to judge their Internet activities, frequency of their Internet activities and about their contact with inappropriate online content. The kids were mainly segregated as daily and weekly users. Results indicate that children between the age of 8-18 years use Internet on daily or weekly basis, 88% use it to do school / college work, 82% for playing online games and 78% use it to get information for other things. Almost six out of every ten, cumulatively (53%) have come in contact with pornography, 34% have accidently found themselves on a pornographic website, 31% received pornographic junk mail by email or messenger and 30% have seen a pornographic pop-up advertisement while browsing Internet sites. In order to verify the interest of the parents to monitor online activities of their children and the assumptions in children’s mind, few questions were asked. Parents are generally unaware of their responsibility to manage their children’s internet use, only 31% of them ask their children about their online activities, or monitor it themselves. Similarly responses of children also imply that their parents are not much bothered about their Internet usage. The last question of the survey inquired as what would be the priority action that they want to 15Apr - 14May 2011 www.teletimesinternational.com 13
minimize the online risks faced by children while using Internet. Majority of the parents were of the view that strong domestic rules should be implemented with necessary teaching guidelines available with schools / colleges and parents should also be engaged for necessary advice with respect to required measures and actions by parents. Conclusions & Way Forward 1.Since much collaborative efforts have been done on the issue soo far. The developed world has raised this issue in a much precise way addressing almost all the concerns relating this issue; however there is still a segment of the issue that is left unnoticed. In a developing country like Pakistan an immature mind might land into a website which exhibits racism and religious discord. These sites inflict hatred and extremism which ultimately have daring consequences on not only that kid but he might end up in a suicide attack, thereby harming himself and hundreds of others. His young mind could easily be casted with information, which might not be accurate, chat rooms prove to be easy access for such activities. This is a very common practice which not only affecting the future of a particular child, but also costing his own life especially in a country like Pakistan. So international assistance, suggestions and guidance is solicited on the issue. 2. Children access the Internet in diverse environments (School, Home, Other places). Pakistan being a developing country has one of the highest numbers of children living below the poverty line. In most of the cases where children have access to online content, the parents are naive enough to understand technology and information dissemination thorough that particular technology, since in majority cases it is the first generation that has access to education and access to any mode of communication technology, so they are not very bothered about what their kid is coming across when he is accessing any sorts of information through any gadget. The reason that’s accounts for such a behavior by parents is their ignorance to the use of technology. They might be educated through any forms of mass media. Ad’s and programs to educate parents through Tv could prove to be helpful in this case. Once the parents/ guardians are educated only then they can eye the activities of their kid. Also an adult supervisory role is very imperative as far as child online safety is concerned. This disparity has to be dealt in an appropriate manner to facilitate a safe and secure Internet utilization for our next generation. 3. There is a requirement to teach Children in Schools about what are online threats that they may confront while using Internet. The survey results show that majority of the children are not aware if they have accidently landed into an undesired web content. Inclusion of certain short courses in their syllabus can be of help, also access to undesired content at educational institutes should be monitored by concerned. 4. Improved International cooperation is needed to eradicate the growing problem of child-sex tourism. Internationally $4 million software program called Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) was developed following an e-mail sent to Bill Gates in 2003. CETS program allows police forces to work together more effectively, searching for and exchanging encrypted information about offenders and victims. The main purpose of CETS is to connect the police forces. Parents in the Western world are recommended to inform the police if any objectionable material is found in their child’s PC which frightens them. There is also a global task force formed to track down pedophiles known as Virtual Task Force which can be contacted at www.virtualtaskforce.com. Sadly in Pakistan there is no such thing as police helping out parents in tracking down child sex abusers. 5. International cooperation for development of unified indicators to measure the present level of online child protection status in an economy is imperative. This would indeed help in effectively improving the countermeasures required by a particular country. In Pakistan also, there should be more effective Internet laws and policy organizations, internet watchdogs, research institutes and think tanks, advocacy organizations, and professional associations where this issue could be tackled in true letter and spirit. 6. Media should play a pivotal role in educating masses in publicizing the contribution of the Internet to the society as today’s major changes in developing countries like Pakistan. This includes talk shows, TV programs with known celebrities educating masses so that more viewership would be there, morning shows as people especially housewives are very fond of these shows. 7. The policy makers and the government officials should take effective measures against the pedophiles by tracking them down and their associates and banning their sites. There is requirement of a National level strategy action plan brining on board all relevant stakeholders to address this growing challenge. 8. Strengthen national collaboration and coordination, institute legal measures, consistently advocate and raise awareness, enforce and monitor. In this regard recommendations from major international forums such as the world congress on sexual exploitation of children and IGF should be promoted and highlighted for states to ensure their implementation. T 14 www.teletimesinternational.com 15Apr - 14May 2011
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