Net safety programmes launched

Two new internet safety programmes for children have been launched to mark this year’s Safer Internet Day which will be held tomorrow.

The Webwise Primary School Programme will help teachers who want to introduce internet safety into their teaching of the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum. It deals with issues such as sharing personal information online, cyber-bullying, dealing with spam and how to determine if online content can be trusted.

Meanwhile, the Garda Síochána has introduced an initiative called "Respectful Online Communication" which will be included in its primary schools programme.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said gardaí would be visiting hundreds of schools in the coming weeks to discuss issues such as cyber bullying.

"Bullying through the use of texting, email and Facebook presents a new challenge because it can be relentless and a young person may find no place to escape this unacceptable behaviour," he said. The Garda programme advises children who receive a bullying or abusive message online to keep the message, block the messenger and not respond to the message.

The commissioner was speaking as new survey findings were released showing that more than half of parents of teenagers trusted them to use the internet safely but just 28 per cent of under nine-year-olds trusted their children with the internet.

The survey, conducted by the National Parents Council Primary and the National Centre for Technology in Education found that 86 per cent of parents believed the internet was important for their children's education.

The same percentage did not think it was acceptable for an 11-year-old to use Facebook without the permission of parents. Asked about the greatest risk posed by the internet, 83 per cent of parents said they were most concerned that their children would see inappropriate content.