A new research report by an agency belonging to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy shows clearly that parents keep a close eye on their chilren’s use of the internet, and that they trust their kids to be responsible online. Minister Conroy appears to be put of kilter with reality in insisting parents need mandatory internet filtering for their children.
Parents keep close watch on kids’ internet use
The overwhelming majority of parents – 78% – have rules for what sites their children can access online, and a tiny group – about 16% only – do NOT supervise their children’s internet activities.
Also, a massive 79% of parents trust their children, saying that the kids are VERY careful online.
The figures are a kick in the teeth for the mandatory filtering program, or wholesale, Australia-wide censorship, which Communications Minister Stephen Conroy wants to introduce.
On figures produced by his own department, mandatory internet filtering would be a waste of time, as parents overwhelmingly are closely monitoring their children’s internet use.
The surprising statistics are revealed in the first ‘digital economy’ research report, on Trust and Confidence, released by the Australian Communications and Marketing Authority (ACMA) in March 2009.
Of the parents with children who used the internet at home, 78% reported that they had rules regarding the types of sites that could be accessed online by their children (5.3 Cybersafety, Fig 17).
And nearly 40% of parents – an astonishingly high figure for a voluntary measure – have installed monitoring or filtering software on their child’s computer. (See Fig 18…where, if the ‘Don’t Knows’ are split evenly, the figure would climb above 40%).
The Rudd Government has abandoned the Howard Government program which made such filtering software free for parents. CLA believes the Rudd Government should re-introduce the free software for parents scheme, and should abandon any proposal for mandatory, internet-wide filtering which effectively would censor adults and children.
The report also records that the frequency of parental supervision of children’s internet activities was explored in a Nielsen survey. Figure 19 of the ACMA report shows that an estimated 33 per cent of parents with children using the internet at home reported supervising some of their child’s home internet use. A further 28 per cent of parents reported supervising all home internet activities of their children, just over 20 per cent reported supervising most home internet activities and ONLY 16 per cent reported never supervising their children’s internet activities.
A huge 79% of parents say their children are very careful online (Fig 20).
Parents, obviously, are doing the right thing. Only the rabid censorship fanatic, Minister Conroy, has his priorities out of balance. Let’s hope he learns from his own agency’s report, and abandons his censorship silliness.
– Bill Rowlings, CEO, CLA
ACMA, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, is producing a series of research reports. The first, on Trust and Confidence, was released in March 2009