What Irish children say.
On learning to use the internet
"My parents do not teach me, I teach them." - Girls' group, aged 12-14 years.
Freedom of usage
"I usually show my mum or dad what websites I am on." - Girls, 9-10 years.
"My mum checks my e-mails." - Girls, 9-10 years.
"They don't want me going into adult websites or chatrooms." - Boys' group, 9-10 years.
Degree of freedom in using mobile phones
"I am not allowed to take bad pictures with my mobile phone." - Boys, aged 9-10 years.
"I have my own password so my parents can't read my text messages." Girls, aged 12-14 years.
Problems and risks mentioned by participants
"You might think that you are talking to another person your age, but you could be talking to this 80-year-old with sagging skin." - Girls, aged 12-14.
"My friend had to buy a new sim card because she kept receiving free ringtones . . . which was eating up all her credit." - Girls, aged 9-10.
"I'm going to kill you." (text message) - Girls, aged 9 -10.
"You could be talking to weirdos online." - Boys, aged 12-14.
"There was a guy on my MSN who said he was 16 but he looked 40 in his picture. He started saying really dirty stuff to me. I just blocked him." - Girls, aged 12-14.
"My friend arranged to meet with a guy . . . and he turned out to be much older than he originally said." - Girls, aged 12-14.
"One time my brother was on a website and a message popped up saying 'let's have fun together'. He told my parents immediately." - Girls, 9 -10 years.
Images
"I saw a violent clip on YouTube of some guy getting kicked in the face." - Boys, aged 12-14
"I saw a clip of a young baby on the ground on YouTube." - Boys, aged 12-14
"If you take pictures of someone and they don't like it, you can put it up on the internet." - Boys aged 12-14.
"Some lads in school take pictures of someone after a fight and then they upload it to the internet." - Boys, aged 12-14.
Online/text message bullying
"It's a part of life." - Boys, aged 12-14
Source: European Commission's Safer Internet for children qualitative study in 29 European countries. National Analysis: Ireland.