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[FYI] (Fwd) News: Children upset by the Net
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- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) News: Children upset by the Net
- From: "Axel H. Horns" <axel.horns@fitug.de>
- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 10:18:20 +0100
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------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 15:29:04 GMT0BST
From: "Yaman Akdeniz" <lawya@lucs-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: News: Children upset by the Net
To: gilc-plan@privacy.org
Reply-to: gilc-plan@gilc.org
BBC News
Monday, December 7, 1998 Published at 22:15 GMT
Sci/Tech
Children upset by the Net
2.4 million children in the UK use the Internet
A survey has suggested that up to half a million British
children may have been upset by something they have seen
on the Internet.
The NOP poll shows that one in five of nearly 4,000
children between the ages of six and 16 interviewed for
the survey between September and October this year were
"uncomfortable" with some content viewed on-line.
In the UK, 2.4 million children are estimated to use the
Internet - roughly a third of all children between six
and 16.
Of those who have had negative experiences while
surfing the Internet, the largest proportion - 40% - had
seen something "rude".
'Not surprised'
One in seven said they had encountered content that
had "freightened them", while 25% saw pages that they
thought "would get them into trouble".
NOP Associate Director Rob Lawson described the
numbers as a "significant minority".
The children's charity NCH Action for Children suggested
the survey strengthened calls for Internet regulation to
protect younger users.
Charity spokesman John Carr said: "I regret to say I'm
not surprised by this survey's findings, it's what we
have been saying for some time.
Net nannies
"Parents need to know their children are surfing the net
in safety and security. At the moment, they have no way
of knowing that at all."
NCH Action for Children, which advises the government on
children's issues, backs the introduction of "net
nannies" - programmes which filter out content unsuitable
for children.
The survey, called Kids.net, was paid for by Microsoft,
the BBC, NatWest and Anglia Multimedia in syndicate.
The Department of Trade and Industry's forthcoming
review on Internet regulation is expected to be published
before Christmas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yaman Akdeniz <lawya@leeds.ac.uk>
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) at: http://www.cyber-rights.org
Read the new CR&CL (UK) Report, Who Watches the Watchmen, Part:II
Accountability & Effective Self-Regulation in the Information Age,
August 1998 at http://www.cyber-rights.org/watchmen-ii.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~