Blog – Latest stories tagged 'internet'

Thousands of digitastic families set to descend on the Digital Kids Show this October half term at EventCity, Manchester

On October 29th & 30th, thousands of Minecraft, gaming, YouTube loving children and parents will gather at EventCity for a day out like no other. Split across five zones, the event will showcase an unrivalled array of events and activities all included in the ticket price, making it one of the best value days out of the year.

There’s an awesome selection of child friendly games including a 40 Player MINECRAFT Hub, Gaming Bus, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Retro Gaming and the latest Virtual Reality to keep fans of all things futuristic entertained.

Dads will love the Ferrari F1 Simulator and Bandai Namco’s Project Cards on Oculus Rift will bring out the Lewis Hamilton in anyone! There are prizes for the fastest lap in the next generation Scalextric Arc Air family tournament and if that’s not enough car action, 5 -17 year olds can take part in driving lessons in REAL cars – great fun and an amazing way to instil road safety from an early age.

Everyone dreams of launching the next big thing and if you are a budding app inventor or engineer then this is the show for you. The show has lots of activities to ignite the imagination and parents can get involved with kids as they get creative with robots, coding workshops and STEM toys and prepare them to be wowed by the cool Science Shows in our purpose built Explorer Dome.

E-Safety and Anti-Bullying workshops from the Diana Award and Internet Matters are an essential part of the show to help you keep your kids safe online and inspire them to be responsible digital citizens. Meet our friends from YouTube Kids and CBBC who’ve got some awesome surprises for our Digital Kids.

The Digital Kids Show also features some of the UK’s biggest YouTubers including LDShadowLady, AmyLee33, Ashdubh, Tomohawk, SmallishBeans & EthanGamerTV amongst others. They will be doing Meet & Greets and live shows on the stage. They will be joined by CBBC favourites Dick & Dom and BGT Finalists Mythical PSM and Boogie Storm!

Commenting on the event Aisha Tilstone said: “The Digital Kids Show is set to be the highlight of the October half term. We have everything every gamer needs to know right now and an insight from some of the industry’s leading lights. Even if gaming isn’t your thing it’s set to be an amazing day out for all the family. There’s so much on offer for everyone and the leading Minecraft players are sure to be a hit as they will be meeting fans and telling them all about the secret of their success. There is also an underlying message of Internet safety with a specific zone dedicated to it. This comes on the back of a recent report from OFCOM* which highlighted that there has been a fall 2015-2014 from 83% to 78% in the number of parents who trust their children to use the internet safely.”

The Digital Kids Show will be taking place 29th and 30th October at Event City. Visit www.digitalkidsshow.co.uk to find out more.

Before the Internet, parents felt that they had some control of who their children communicated with. Many houses had one phone and parents felt confident that they knew who their children were talking to.

The web has changed this and parents find it difficult to keep track of the multiple accounts and Apps that their child is using. The development of technology means that children and young people can easily speak to strangers and access inappropriate content.

This is why digital parenting is such an important skill today as children need to be given rules about how much ‘screen time’ they are allowed in a day, what type of Apps they are allowed to download and most importantly the risks of talking to people online.

There is often an argument that children and young people are ‘digitally savvy’ and that they can run circles around their parents when it comes to technology. This may be true with many families, however they do lack the life experience and wisdom that makes them more vulnerable to potential grooming by others on the Internet.

So what can parents do? In the first instance, it is important that they communicate with their children about what they are doing on the Internet. Children cannot be monitored 24/7and as they grow older into their teenage years, there has to be an element of trust and independence, so that if something did happen, then they would be able to tell their parents.

Secondly, parents need to upscale their knowledge and look at sites which help them to filter and put parental controls on devices. On Christmas morning, after the presents have been opened, children will ask how you work certain toys and parents will look at the instruction booklet for help. As many devices don’t specifically come with advice on parental controls, this is where sites such as http://www.internetmatters.org/ comes in handy to look at setting controls on specific devices.

Finally, we must try and teach our children the rules about being safe when using technology and the Internet. When they are very young, we highlight safe ways to cross the road and to be careful near deep water. In the digital age, this now must be extended to enjoying the Internet, but doing it in a safe way.

Coming Soon: Our new parent online training course will be available soon. The new course will look at how children and young people use technology and the Internet, develop parent knowledge and understanding of the digital world and support them in becoming a better ‘digital parents’. Log into your E-safety Support dashboard to preview the existing staff and governor training courses and to check for product updates.

Children are becoming more trusting of what they see online, but sometimes lack the understanding to decide whether it is true or impartial.

But even for children who have grown up with the internet - so-called digital natives - there's room to improve their digital know-how and understanding.

For example, children do not always question what they find online. One in five online 12-15s (19%) believe information returned by a search engine such as Google or Bing must be true, yet only a third of 12-15s (31%) are able to identify paid-for adverts in these results.

Nearly one in ten (8%) of all children aged 8-15 who go online believe information from social media websites or apps is "all true" - doubling from 4% in 2014.

Children are increasingly turning to YouTube for "true and accurate" information about what's going on in the world. The video sharing site is the preferred choice for this kind of information among nearly one in ten (8%) online children, up from just 3% in 2014.

But only half of 12-15s (52%) who watch YouTube are aware that advertising is the main source of funding on the site, and less than half (47%) are aware that ‘vloggers' (video bloggers) can be paid to endorse products or services.

James Thickett, Ofcom's Director of Research, said: "The internet allows children to learn, discover different points of view and stay connected with friends and family. But these digital natives still need help to develop the know-how they need to navigate the online world."

Children's online lives

Children aged 12-15 were split about whether being online helped them be themselves, with around one third (34%) agreeing and a similar amount (35%) disagreeing. The remaining 31% were unsure whether being online helped them be themselves or not.

Most 12-15s (72%) believe that most people behave differently when they're online, with girls more likely to say this happens than boys (78% versus 67%).

More than two thirds (67%) of girls aged 12-15 with a social media account said there were things they dislike about social media. Nearly one in three (30%) were concerned about people spreading gossip or rumours and a quarter (23%) said people can be "nasty, mean or unkind to others".

This compared with just over half of boys aged 12-15 (52%) reporting things they dislike about social media.

Many children are also concerned about spending too much time on the internet. Around one in ten online children aged 8-15 (9%) say they dislike spending too much time online, and nearly one in three 12-15s (31%) admit they can sometimes spend too much time on social media in particular.

Parents' role in online safety

More than nine in ten parents of 8-15s (92%) manage their children's internet use in some way - either through technical tools, talking to or supervising their child, or setting rules about access to the internet and online behaviour. Nearly four in ten parents (38%) use all four approaches.

Among the technical tools used by parents are network-level content filters offered by broadband providers. Almost six in ten parents of 8-15s (56%) are aware of these parental controls, up from 50% in 2014, and a quarter (26%) use them, up from 21% in 2014.

It appears that the vast majority of children do hear the advice given about staying safe online. Some 97% of children aged 8-15 recall advice they've been given, particularly from parents.

The large majority (84%) of children aged 8-15 also say they would tell their parents, another family member or a teacher if they saw something online they found worrying, nasty or offensive. However, 6% of children say they would not tell anyone.