We’ve all heard the expression, ‘You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks!’ While I think you could probably squeeze in one or two, I am a big believer in educating young minds.
McAfee recently released the findings from its ‘Secret Life of Teens’ survey which gave a real insight into Aussie teens’ online behaviour. And the results … well, let’s just say they provided us parents with a real wake up call.
While 80% of parents interviewed in the survey trust their teens not to access age-inappropriate content online, 66.5% of teens said their parents don’t know everything they do online! Over 30% of teens admitted to the illegal practice of pirating music or movies, 68% said they had posted personal information online and, most alarmingly, 6% admitted to meeting up with a stranger after meeting online! More than 25% of the teens had been victims of cyber-bullying with over 50% of teens witnessing it as well.
And while the research showed that 80% of parents are having conversations with their teens about online safety, teens are clearly still engaging in risky behaviour. I firmly believe that these results highlight the need for real cyber education – ideally before kids hit the teenage years.
In recognition of this growing need for Cyber Education, McAfee has partnered with Life Education to develop a national cyber education program for Australian school children that will kick off in 2013.
The national cyber education program will take the form of a new Life Education Social Skills and Cybersafety module for middle primary students. Life Education will utilise McAfee’s expertise and experience in the security industry in creating Cybersafety content for upper primary students which will include strategies to deal with unsafe online situations. So, Life Education’s famous giraffe mascot, Healthy Harold, will be championing cyber safety in 2013.
As Steve Redman from McAfee said regarding the launch of the initiative, “Children’s online behaviour becomes entrenched very early on and if they are not properly educated about cyber safety, they will not be prepared to handle the situations they will certainly face online as teenagers. This is why we [McAfee] are joining with Life Education Australia to educate children about cyber safety starting in the middle primary years.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself Steve. We look forward to hearing about Healthy Harold’s adventures in Cyber Space!
Take Care,
Alex
