Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is 15-19 May and run under the auspices of the Office of the Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner. It is a week to explore privacy under the theme “Trust and Transparency”.
The PAW website is chock full of resources, graphics and information and 358 organisations have joined to help you spread the word. A video gives a good overview.
McAfee (formerly Intel Security) and Life Education have conducted a study to see how the privacy themes play out in Australian families’ attitudes to cyber security and online safety. Disturbingly it found that despite our increasingly complex cyber world, families are talking less about online safety and privacy, potentially putting children at risk of cyberbullying and online abuse.
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The study found that, across the country, conversations about online safety between parents and their children has slipped 23% in the last year. At the same time, trust between children and parents is at an all-time low with 41% of children hiding their online activity from their parents.
The study also found that only 32% of children say they learn about cyber safety from school, pointing to a potential gap in our younger generation’s understanding of online safety.
The findings, released to mark the start of Privacy Awareness Week, have sparked a call to action amongst parents and children about the importance of talking about online privacy and safety.
Alarmingly, the study found that kids use unreliable factors to determine how trustworthy websites and apps are. The top three reasons children trust websites and apps included:
- “Friends are using it” (83%)
- “It is free” (45%)
- “How it looks” (44%)
Unsurprisingly, terms and conditions were least relied on for Aussie kids (17%).
The research also found:
- When it comes to social media usage, for children aged 8 – 12, YouTube (76%) was the most used social media platform, followed by Facebook (46%) and Snapchat (39%) – despite the legal age for all three being 13.
- A growing lack of trust exists between parents towards their children. 82% admitted they have attempted to find out what their child does online, and 36% even go as far as monitoring their children’s online behaviour by searching their devices.
- Kids are not being that transparent with their parents either. 41% of children admit to hiding their online activity from their parents, which has increased from 37% in 2015.
- The most common method that children use to hide their online activity is to minimise their browser when an adult walks in (23%). More are now clearing their browser history after use, (21%) and deleting messages (18%) compared to 16% and 16% respectively in 2015.
- For those families that do discuss online safety with their children, the topics remain the same as in previous years: cyberbullying (69%), privacy settings (59%) and identity theft (51%). But the degree to which they are discussed is once again down from 84%, 75%, and 66%, respectively, in 2015.
Mother of four and McAfee Cybermum Alex Merton-McCann said the drop in cyber safety conversations between parents and their children is seriously concerning.
“As their digital world expands so rapidly, we should be doing all we can to help our young digital natives learn how to assess what – and what not – to trust,” Merton-McCann said.
“It’s worrying to hear that more kids are hiding what they do online from their parents. As with most things in life, learning about cyber safety starts at home, we shouldn’t rely entirely on schools to educate our kids. We parents really need to ensure we’re having these important conversations and establishing clear rules to protect our kids when they’re online,” continued Merton-McCann.
McAfee and Life Education, Australia’s largest non-government provider of health education, have worked together for five years to increase cyber education aimed at young Australians. Life Education supports the research findings from McAfee and agrees parents and children need to start and maintain a consistent dialogue about cyber safety at home and in the classroom.
Kellie Sloane, CEO of Life Education NSW said, “Since McAfee began its cyber education partnership with Life Education in 2013, the program has reached more than 349,130 students in over 8,400 Australian schools. Our cyber safety modules have become increasingly the most popular modules as parents understand the need for their children to be educated on cyber safety.
“Surprisingly, this research found that only 32% of children say they learn about cyber safety from school. Our aim is to encourage more schools to sign up to Life Education and ultimately increase the awareness of cyber safety among young children in schools,” Sloane said.
Life Education in partnership with McAfee offer two modules, It’s Your Call and bCyberwise, which enable young children and adolescents to make educated decisions about how to stay safe online. The bCyberwise module includes information on reporting cyber bullying, information sharing online, and is accredited by the Office of Children’s eSafety Commissioner.
Cybermum’sTop 5 Tips on Keeping Kids Privacy-Aware:
- Connect With Your Kids: Talk casually and frequently with them about the online risks, and make sure the communication lines are open. Foster discussions around relevant news stories or cases at schools.
- Set Password Rules: To show camaraderie and trust teens may share their social media passwords with friends or acquaintances. Friend or not, this is a dangerous practice, so ensure that your kidsunderstand the importance of personal security.
- Protect Your Devices: Make sure that all your devices and your child’s device(s) are protected with good security software like McAfee Total Protection.
- Establish Online Rules Together: When everyone is calm, work out a set of online rules. You could even consider a formal Internet agreement or contract. Make sure you include time allowed online as well as what information can and can’t be shared online.
- Up Your Tech Knowledge: Stay one step ahead and take the time to research the various devices your kids use – but also stay knowledgeable about the newest and latest social networks too. I recommend creating accounts for the social networks that your kids are using so that you fully understand what they’re interacting with.
