online community benefits & risks 2013

KIDSOKONLINESAFE COMMUNITY LEARNING FOR ALL

Robert Hart-Fletcher

Wednesday, 13 February 13

Benefits of Online Communities


QUESTIONWhat do you think might be the benefits of online community for young people?


Learning Benefits Active Citizenship - Members learn the social skills to participate and in a friendly, encouraging community, online and in-person.


Learning Benefits Self Expression - for those with learning and physical disabilities, the community lets them take as long as they like to communicate. Members are not judged on the speed of thought or typing, but on the value of their contribution.


Learning Benefits Literacy - Every activity involves written and visual communication and motivates and helps improve reading, writing, use of signs.


Learning Benefits CyberSafety - Members learn how to be safe and responsible on the Internet.ICT - Members develop and practice a range of ICT skills they need for everyday life and work and for formal curricular.


Digital LiteracyPurposeful writing, formal and informal, is a major activity throughout the community. In the Forums members talk (write!) about everything, from the trivial to issues of global significance, as well as the personal and sensitive.


Digital LiteracyMembers communicate with their Group Sponsors, Staff and peers, learning to pose and respond to questions and writing to engage their audience. Members are motivated to create content for their profiles. They read and comment on each other’s work.


Digital LiteracyWriting is not the easiest means of expression for everyone, nor is it always the most appropriate. Every picture tells a story and a video tells a lot more. Multimedia - members learn to embed images and video in the community.


Social & Emotional“Social networking, when it is designed specifically for children and young people and deliberately focussed on stimulating learning and social interaction, actively supports children become better learners and more responsible citizens.” - Dr Karen Pine, University of Hertfordshire


Social & Emotional“Children with special needs become more confidentIsolated children find friends to share their interests”- Dr Karen Pine, University of Hertfordshire


Social & Emotional“Young people create their own supportive community where they learn:

to help each other

to cooperate and share

to understand others feelings

to be active citizens

to understand other cultures”

- Dr Karen Pine, University of Hertfordshire


Risks of Online Communities


QUESTIONWhat do you think might be the risks of online community for young people?


Talking to StrangersThe most common risk activity reported by children online is communicating with new people they have not met face-to-face. 30% of European children aged 9-16 who use the Web have communicated with someone they have not met before, an activity that may be risky but fun.


Meeting Strangers9% of children have met an online contact offline in the past year. 1% of all children (or one in nine of those who went to a meeting) were bothered by the meeting.


Meeting Strangers9-10 year olds are least likely to have met an online contact, but are most likely to have been bothered by what happened (31% of those who had been to such a meeting).


Self Harm The second most common risk is exposure to harmful user-generated content.21% of 11-16 year olds were exposed to such content:

hate (12%)pro-anorexia (10%)self-harm (7%)drug-taking (7%)suicide (5%)


Pornography14% of 9-16 year olds have in the past year seen images online that are ‘obviously sexual – for example, showing people naked or having sex.’Of those who have seen such images:

33% were bothered by the experiencehalf of those bothered (2% of all children) were fairly or very upset by what they saw.


PornographyIn all media, 23% of children have seen sexual/pornographic content in the past year.Web is as common a source of porn as TV, film & video.Older teens are 4x more likely than young children to see porn online or offline. Images seen online were more explicit.Younger children are more upset by sexual images online than teenagers.


Bullying More bullying occurs offline.

19% were bullied (6% online)

12% bullied others (3% online)

6% of 9-16 year olds have received nasty or hurtful messages online3% have sent such messages to others. Over half of those who received bullying messages were fairly or very upset.


Sexting 15% of 11-16 year olds had ‘sexual messages or images’ from peers – talk about having sex, images of people naked or having sex3% say they have sent or posted such messages.Of those who received the messages, 1/4 were bothered. 1/8th of those who received such messages were fairly or very upset by it.


Personal Data Abuse

9% of 11-16 year olds have had their personal data misused

password (7%) personal information (4%)cheated of money (1%)


0

35

70

9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16

14%

33%49%

63%

Children who encountered online risk

Risk by Age


Vulnerable ChildrenCared for children are more vulnerable.High risk behaviour is more common. Offline & online.They need higher levels of supervision & care online.


CommunitySafety


The Recipe for Community Safety

User ValidationModeration

Clear Community Rules

Auto Moderation System

Human Moderators

Self ModerationPeer reporting

Animation to give Purpose


KIDSOKONLINESAFE COMMUNITY LEARNING FOR ALL

Robert Hart-Fletcher


online community benefits & risks 2013

Education