At Least 49.6% of UK Kids Safe Online

According to a report on the BBC, more than half of children in the UK who use the Internet have had an “unwanted experience”. Worrying? Possibly! Scaremongering? You betcha!

The NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Children, sorry, Prevention of Cruelty to Children) found that 50.4% of 2053 children had experienced problems such as bullying, being threatened or sexually harassed while online. 50.4%? That means 1034.712 of those children experienced these horrible things online. 1034.712? Yes, that’s 50.4% of 2053! They obviously did their sums wrong somewhere to get that 50.4% or maybe they lost a child or gained one somewhere in the survey. I don’t know. Reporting 50.4% as a valid statistical measure on a sample size of well over 2000, simply looks like the NSPCC really, really wanted to be able to say “more than half”, but their stats didn’t stack up.

Apparently, “It is concerned about the popularity of social networking sites such as Bebo or MySpace, which it says 52% of children aged 11-16 use once a day.”

How many cross the roads every day? How many smoke cigarettes? How many try drugs? Every day?

Obviously, we should be concerned about our children’s safety online, and we should be teaching them safe surfing, but just because polled children tell the NSPCC that they have been “bullied” online does not mean that 50.4% of our children are going to be crushed by the experience. I am sure that the figures will be closer to 100% (99.4% perhaps) for those children who have had an “unwanted experience” offline.

You can donate to the NSPCC to assist with its other worthy causes here and you can read their recommendations on how to teach your child to use the Internet safely here. The BBC’s children’s site - CBBC - also has safe surfing tips for kids.