Romanian children still surfing among online sharks

Words such as ‘sexting,’ ‘grooming,’ ‘identity spoofing’ and ‘cyber-bullying’ may sound like gibberish to some parents, but the dangers are real. These words define actual risks to which children surfing the internet are exposed, with local youngsters among the most vulnerable, according to European research. What are the threats, and how can less computer literate parents keep their children safe online?

Otilia Haraga

To be able to understand the dangers of living in a global village, one must be aware of the dimensions of the internet. “Any society will have its share of dangerous individuals. If we assume that this ratio is just 0.01 percent and estimate the number of internet users at 2 billion, it is easy to see that when sitting at the computer, a child can connect with a very high number of dangerous people,” George Petre, threat intelligence team leader at BitDefender, tells BR.

Sexting, which means sending messages or images of a sexual nature, is one of the most common scourges of cyber-space. And Romanian children are the most exposed in Europe to this phenomenon, as 22 percent of them have seen or received sexual messages online, according to the 2010 EU Kids Online II survey, financed by the European Commission Safer Internet program.

Read more about

Creating Social Media Posts That Drive Traffic To Your Website

read more

“In many European countries, sexting is seen as a worrying phenomenon. In Romania, on the other hand, there are no such concerns, since teenagers do not perceive this as a problem, and parents do not learn about the issue due to lack of communication within the family,” George Roman, of Salvati Copiii, tells BR.

Another online threat is identity spoofing. This is where chat and instant messaging are used by dubious individuals to contact people that they do not know, often assuming the identity of someone else. An example might be an adult male posing as a teenage boy to chat online to girls.

Bullies are also at work in the virtual arena. While this does not exclusively involve children, cyber-bullying is defined as harassment of the victim with the aim of destroying his or her sense of self-worth. The cyber-bully will use psychological torture, insulting and humiliating his or her victims, even threatening violence. Often, the victims are too ashamed to report such incidents.

Romanian children are the most exposed in Europe to harassment both on- and offline. Some 41 percent of them say they have been upset by other children over the past year (online and offline), while 13 percent admitted this had happened on the internet.

And the threats can be even more sinister. Child grooming – adults trying to lure children into meetings so they can abuse them – is one of the highest risks your children will run when surfing the internet. Through this initial online contact, a child can end up in the clutches of pedophiles or human trafficking networks.

Nearly a third (32 percent) of Romanian children say they have communicated online with someone they had not met face to face, while 13 percent of them even went on to meet that person.

“Just as in real life we wouldn’t let our kids to talk to strangers when they’re playing on the street, we should teach them to behave the same way when using PCs,” Oliviu Talianu, business development manager at Panda Security Romania, tells BR.

But threats to a child’s well-being are not always so easy to pinpoint. Some very real, albeit less conspicuous, dangers lie in the unfiltered information children can access when they are online. The games they play can encourage violent behavior and in some cases youngsters can be lured into joining extremist movements via the internet. They can also place bets in online casinos. IT-savvy teenagers could be tempted to commit cyber-crime, without their parents even suspecting, and then face the legal consequences.

Teenagers may also lack the experience to judge what is appropriate information to put online. “Information posted on the internet is indexed by thousands of search engines and replicated in many places, and is therefore nearly impossible to delete. In recent years, employers have started to check potential candidates using search engines and social networks,” says Petre. Last but not least, tips on how to procure drugs are abundant on the internet.

Unlike in other EU countries, Romanian children are more likely to access the internet away from home. Only 86 percent of Romanian children go online at home compared to 100 percent in the Netherlands and 99 percent in the Czech Republic.

And local youngsters spend more time on the internet than the European average, with 70 percent of children in Romania surfing the net daily or almost daily.  The average age at which children in Europe go online for the first time is nine years old, the same as in Romania. In Northern European countries such as Sweden or Denmark, the figure is even lower, with children as young as seven accessing the internet.

And only a minority of parents in Romania is aware of the online adventures of their children. While 13 percent of local children who use the internet say they have been harassed online, only 2 percent of their parents know about it.

“Unfortunately in Romania, parents are not sufficiently informed. This is due both to lack of awareness of online dangers, and to the fact that young people are more knowledgeable about the internet than their parents and use it more than their parents and teachers,” says Roman. This is because Romania, like Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania and Turkey, is a country of so-called digital natives, where children know their way around the internet better than their moms and dads.

Surfing into the danger zone

One of the key ways to limit a child’s exposure to internet harm is to know where and how these things can happen.

Most children use the internet to check e-mail, download music and movies and listen to the radio. More than 80 percent of kids interact on social networks and watch videos, films and TV. Almost 58 percent of them search for information for their homework or for leisure activities (travelling, music, cinema, etc). And just under 42 percent talk across messenger, Skype or chat services, according to Talianu.

“Facebook statistics show that from one month to the next the average age of users drops. Even so, Facebook is not children’s favorite social network, they are more attracted to social networks that are more entertainment-oriented such as MySpace and Hi5,” says Petre.

Only half of Romanian parents monitor their children’s activities on the internet by checking their profile on social networks and the websites they have accessed. The majority of parents, 87 percent, forbid their children to have a social media account, download music or films and use instant messaging. Last but not least, 79 percent of mothers and fathers are more active, explaining to their children which websites are safe and actually helping them to look for information on the internet.

Technology can also help. A parental control program can restrict access to various website categories, depending on the age of the child. Parents can choose to block sites with pre-established unsuitable age categories, or may configure these categories themselves. Such software can also limit access to certain applications. And it is ‘shutting-proof,’ which means it will resist attempts from children to close it.

Parental control programs come in both paid-for and free of charge versions. Some companies offer free security programs in order to win new customers and convert users of free products to buyers of paid ones. Paid-for products offer the whole package of facilities for the user’s protection.

“One of the main differences between free and paid-for parental control programs is the protection against attempts to de-activate the program. In security products, these functions of protection are well implemented,” says Petre.

Parental control products can be purchased as part of an internet security program supplied by anti-virus companies. In this case, these applications are included with the products at no extra cost. Alternatively, parents can purchase separate parental control applications which cost about EUR 30 a year, but this does not include any other protection. “It is always better to buy a total solution which includes all kinds of protection,” advises Talianu.

Even though parental control programs are designed to make internet surfing a safer experience for children, they do not work wonders. An actual figure as to how much these programs have helped is hard to ascertain.

“We would be lying if we said a number. The only way to decrease the risks is education and direct control from parents. Just as strangers can contact grown-ups through information they provide on social networks, they can also contact your children, who may be more vulnerable,” warns Talianu.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

online lowdown Romanian children

Most common threats: Sexting, identity spoofing, bullying, child grooming

32 percent of kids say they have communicated online with someone they haven’t met face to face

86 percent of children go online at home, compared to 100 percent in EU countries

Nine is the average age at which children go online for the first time

13 percent of kids who use internet say they have been harassed online

2 percent of the parents of kids reporting harassment know about it