Non-profit initiative Digital Schoolhouse has released its latest research report, Online Safety: A Pupil’s Perspective. Over 2,000 pupils aged 12-13, from schools across country took part in the survey, the findings of which are outlined in the report.
The report revealed that 90% of pupils recognise that e-safety is an issue of importance. It also revealed that almost all respondents (98%) are confident to some degree in their own ability to stay safe online.
Of the students surveyed who play games online, 80% knew where to find information on how to play games safely and responsibly, compared to 59% of those that don’t play games online.
When asked about parents’ involvement in their e-safety practices at home, a high percentage (63.4) of parents talk to their children about staying safe online, and this number was higher for girls that it was for boys. Yet only 19% of students said that their parents set limits about their time spent online and actually enforced it. A further 35% of students said there were no limits being set at all. A knock-on effect is that pupils who felt that limits were either not set or enforced were the least likely to have updated their privacy settings on games consoles.
Shahneila Saeed, Director of Digital Schoolhouse and Head of Education at Ukie, the games industry trade body, said: “It’s reassuring to see how intuitively and smartly a lot of children are behaving when it comes to staying safe online. It reflects the impact of the excellent work that schools and industry are doing in this space.
The report and feedback from pupils has indicated that many parents have a knowledge gap when it comes to certain e-safety measures, particularly around privacy controls.
– Shahneila Saeed, Digital Schoolhouse
“But we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to e-safety. The report and feedback from pupils has indicated that many parents have a knowledge gap when it comes to certain e-safety measures, particularly around privacy controls. And with an overwhelming 55% of pupils saying that they would speak to their parents first if anything happened online that concerned them, they need to be even more vigilant in ensuring their online safety knowledge is as thorough as it can be.”
“The survey has helped us to identify the areas we need to work on and has raised questions about the need for both a greater collaboration with parents and a national conversation about what else we can do ensure young people remain safe online.”
Digital Schoolhouse is a non-profit organisation delivered by Ukie and powered by PlayStation®. It enables secondary schools (Digital Schoolhouses) to deliver creative computing workshops to visiting primary school pupils to help revolutionise computing education. The initiative was created to help provide vital links between industry and education in order to collaboratively prepare the next generation for a digital age.
The report was released at the Digital Schoolhouse’s annual panel discussion, which this year asked, “Can our tech industry do more to facilitate a safer online experience for the end-user?”. The discussion was chaired by Keza MacDonald, video games editor at The Guardian, and panelists included: Stuart Wright, Chief Technology Officer, SEGA Europe, John Constable, Headteacher at Langley Grammar School, Will Freeman, Video Games Journalist for Ask About Games, Gianni Zamo, Communications Officer for the VSC Ratings Board and Caroline Hurst, Director of Education, Childnet International. A pupil panel discussion addressing the same question also took place in order to hear and compare different viewpoints.
To view the entire report, please click here or visit http://www.digitalschoolhouse.org.uk for more information.
