Blog – Latest stories tagged 'internet'

New research from Voxburner shows that when it comes to new and future technologies, 87% of 16-24s are concerned about the security of the data that they share.

There is a popular belief that young people are frivolous with their data and don’t have any concerns about privacy, but 67% of 16-24s say that security is their number one priority when buying an Internet-connected product. Reliability (45%), cost (43%) and ease of use (22%) were other considerations noted.

Claire, aged 18 from Medway, says, “I certainly have concerns about data privacy and in some cases I will avoid whatever I am doing if I am not willing to share my information with the company. However, in some circumstances I do make the trade off in the hope that the company will be responsible and I will get a decent deal for my sacrifice.”

Businesses and the media are becoming more excited by the Internet of Things, but are young consumers? When asked about their understanding of the term ‘Internet of Things’, 53% of respondents have never heard of it, whilst 19% say they have heard of it but don’t know what it means and 17% have heard of it and know a little. Only 6% say they fully understand it.

When given a full explanation on what The Internet of Things is, 80% of young consumers say the concept sounds interesting to them, 75% feel excited although 16% feel scared and 9% say they feel threatened.

Where the Internet of Things could have the best impact on the lives of 16-24s, 60% of respondents would like to use it to help them research products whilst shopping and save money, 55% say it would have an impact in the home, for controlling things on the move, whilst personal improvement like tracking fitness or better productivity (55%) and for social connectivity to stay better connected and closer to friends and family (46%) are other reasons cited.

Luke Mitchell, Head of Insights at Voxburner says, “The three biggest ways the Internet of Things can help young people are adamantly argued by our respondents: time-saving, added life value and money-saving. These are themes that resonate across all areas of their lives - they want value, convenience and fun. Despite having a higher than average stake in technology and a strong interest in what the Internet of Things can bring, there are concerns too. We’re seeing young people becoming more worried about their data and control of personal information. Respondents can see that the Internet of Things potentially means more of their life is exposed digitally.”

Over a third of 16-24s say the risks associated with new technology such as the Internet of Things do not outweigh the benefits.

The full research ‘Are young people wild about the Internet of Things’ can be downloaded for free on the Voxburner website.

A few weeks ago an article appeared within my Facebook timeline from an online newspaper I follow. It reported on a young man in Colorado, USA , who was wanted on a drugs charge. He had been chased by the police at high speed and had managed to crash into dozens of other vehicles. He also evaded the police by car-jacking, no less than three other vehicles, one of which was a mother, who was stopped and dragged out of her car whilst the man sped away with her terrified four year old son in the back seat (he was later retrieved frightened and distraught but unharmed when the felon abandoned that car for another).

As I looked down the many, many comments attached to the posting, I was shocked to read postings such as:

“Ha, its just like GTA…” or,

“He’s been playing too much Grand Theft Auto lol!”

What struck me was the casual nature in which people acknowledged an incident that must have been unbelievably traumatic for the mother of the four year-old and the other victims for that matter, even to the point of thinking that it was something to have a bit of a giggle about.

As I read further comments of a similar vein, I started to reflect on whether our now daily engagement with technology is impacting our capacity to differentiate between the real and virtual worlds and whether it is encouraging a worrying trend, with some people, towards insensitive voyeurism; an acceptance that everything on the web is provided for entertainment and an inability to sympathise with a victim.

I then began to consider what impact this phenomena maybe having on young people and this made me think about some experiences I have had in my role as a supply teacher in both primary and secondary schools. Recently, I have noticed how the words ‘rape’ and ‘porn’ appear to have crept into the everyday conversations of young people, even to the point of modifying them with a view to include them in youth culture, as in the word ‘frape’.

Surely, the ‘normalisation’ of these words into our youth vocabulary is not healthy and is contrary to the nurturing environments that adults should be ensuring exist within school and at home. So, how does this happen?

This blurring of the boundaries between reality and cyberspace can manifest itself in much more sinister and darker ways too. A year or so back, I was teaching a Y11 resistant materials class who had a double lesson that spanned over dinner time. A couple of the boys returned to school after spending their dinner at a house of one of the group. As they entered the workshop they were laughing and I overheard one them saying “… it was just like on ‘Fallout’ ”. Thinking that they had been playing video games I asked them about it; however, I was shocked to discover that what they had been watching was a real beheading that had been posted on the internet by a terrorist group. What was equally distressing was how they had viewed this horrific scene, coldly disconnecting the fact that this was a real person from the voyeuristic and trivial ‘entertainment’ the video provided for them. They even likened the event to computer games that they had played to the point of interpreting and reconciling the video as just another scene from a computer game.

As a consequence of the ubiquitous nature of the worldwide web and the type of material that can be accessed, do you think that the real worlds of young people are being dangerously impacted by their cyber worlds? Do you believe that the way in which content is presented such that the difference between the real and the fictional is distinctly vague and blurred, encourages young people to becoming desensitised and numb to real events and situations that, prior to the technological age, would have been genuinely seen as horrific, upsetting or gruesome?

Or do you believe that the impact of the web is no different to the influence on youth culture of radio and television in the post-war 20th century and it is inevitable that media will affect the language and behaviour of young people?

To let us know your opinion is on this important topic, please use the comments section below. There are also a number of related lesson plans and assembly plans available from E-safety Support

A new report from youth insights consultancy Voxburner into online security and data privacy reveals that 59% of 16-24s believe the Internet needs more censorship and control. Interestingly there is a significant gender difference, with a third of young men strongly against further censorship and a similar number of young women strongly in favour of it.

Young people are also rather split on whether technology will be increasingly used for evil rather than good, with 46% believing it will be used for evil and 54% opting for good.

Google has faced media scrutiny over its handling of user data, yet UK 16-24s who voted Google among its top ten favourite brands in Voxburner’s Youth 100 research, remain positive and trusting of honest intentions. The large majority of respondents (86%) say that Google is not ‘evil’.

Commenting on the results, Luke Mitchell, Head of Insight at Voxburner says, “Often typecast as libertarians, the truth is that young people today are more conservative than any youth generation before them. The majority in our research believe that the internet needs more control – a viewpoint that is surprisingly at odds with the mood of internet culture opinion-setters.”

Voxburner also asked young people’s views on Edward Sowden and whilst 37% branded him a hero, 63% said they don’t know enough about him or the issue.

The full Online Security and Data Privacy report from Voxburner can be downloaded here.