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• Many children (aged 7-14) are internet-connected, the most frequent locations of access being the home and school; most online activities are related to leisure or school preparation. Children’s knowledge about internet risks seem broad, but they are mostly connected to well-known risks. Less visible risks are not really perceived as such. Children are aware of many methods of preventing/coping with online risks, but filtering information is not used/known. The main sources of information on online safety are family and school (although the latter in a significantly lower proportion). More than half of the children remember being talked to in school about internet safety, but use of mobile phones or spam messages have only been superficially addressed; 75% of children claim that parental rules are in place regarding internet use, the most common being limiting time online and use of antivirus software.
• Teenagers (aged 14-18) are high internet users, most accessing the internet from home. Their main activities are connecting with friends, chatting and downloading material. Their knowledge of internet-related risks is broad, but mainly focused on the most visible risks, and less on newly emerging ones. Although most teenagers remember discussing internet safety during school hours, themes such as privacy, phishing, spyware, and using mobile phones are poorly covered.
• The most popular social networks are Facebook and HI5, while the most popular chat clients are YM (two-thirds) and Skype (19%). Most teenagers have set a SNS as their homepage, 75% use emoticons and abbreviations, and one-third have a nickname. A small proportion (7%) sometime use another person’s screen name.
• For more than 50% of parents, the internet is mainly a tool for finding information. Although one-quarter know/believe in Romania that there are regulations for protecting children from online risks, only 8% know how to report illegal or harmful content online. Regarding risks, parents believe that the most exposed to sexual harassment are children aged 15-17 (61.5%), and those aged 11-14 (56.4%), and girls more than boys. The frequency of internet use of children is estimated to be significantly lower by their parents. They also underestimate the length of time children spend online (they estimate 1 hour as opposed to the real figure of over 3 hours a day that children report). Two-thirds of parents claim they have discussed internet risks with their children. Only 2.6% think their child has encountered sexual harassment, while 1 in 5 parents think their child has encountered illegal content. Most parents (82%) say their child needs to ask permission before meeting a new online friend face-to-face, while 18% say they do not require such a thing. Most parental rules are related to limiting the time spent online and verifying content (viruses, type of information), and age-specific content, while little attention is paid to email and chat, which are among the facilities most used by children and adolescents; 22.5% of parents are aware of having a filtering program installed on the computer their children are using.
• Similar to parents, the teachers use the internet mainly at home and for finding information; only 1 in 8 teachers know how to use online reporting tools for illegal or harmful content; 57.3% of teachers do not know there are regulations in place for internet content, and 83% think the government should be more efficient in ensuring online protection; 70.1% of teachers consider limiting internet use for children to be appropriate.
• 62% declare they have talked to children about internet safety in school, 30.2% know that their school has an internet safety policy, 22.4% say their school does not have such policy, while 47.4% are not aware of such policy. The most frequent measure is controlling internet access (under supervision). Only 11.2% of teachers believe their pupils have encountered sexual harassment online.
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