Yes, I'm a teacher and a researcher at the university as you heard,
and I'm interested in online safety for children.
When I started out this research,
there wasn't very much written about this area,
and the few things I could find
were all from an adult perspective,
and I was really interested in
what the children themselves
thought about online safety
and the dark sides of the internet.
So I didn't really know what to do,
I wasn't funded in any way,
so I turned to my four children
and asked them how they thought about this,
so they became my first informants.
And three years ago,
I finally published my PhD thesis,
so you can look closely
because I am one of the few women
who had an academic career,
not in spite to the fact that she has many children
but even thanks to that fact.
In-your-face sexism.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
So, online safety from a children's point of view.
A lot of these issues,
concern, so-called safe-view guides.
This isn't a very good microphone.
I hope you're not disturbed by the sound, because I am.
Safe-use guides are lists,
where you compile tips and rules
for how children should behave to keep safe online.
I have looked through a lot of these safe-use guides
from a lot of countries and they are very similar.
They might be copied from each other,
or they might be copied from the same first source.
I am not sure.
What I do know is that there are pretty old.
In fact, I have traced them back in time,
and the oldest I found where I can be sure of the date
is from 1997.
Let's think for a few seconds
about how internet use has changed since 1997.
Quite a lot, wouldn't you say?.
The kind of meeting places we know today,
that require a login procedure
weren't there for the normal user at least.
Instead we have these open chat rooms
where you could choose your random nickname
and go on chatting with people
and the thrill for most people was in those days:
being at the same website at the same time.
That's not really a thrill today,
It more like in the olden days
when the telephone was new
probably people would,
you know call someone just dial the five and send,
"Hello, I hear you have a phone too. Me too."
Today we require something else,
we need something to bind us together.
But the rules are the same.
So how good can that be?
One of the first rules that always appears is:
don't share.
Don't share personal information on the internet.
Don't tell people your real name.
Don't give out your phone number.
Don't tell them what city you live in.
Don't tell them what school you go to.
Don't publish a photo where you can actually see it's you.
How does that apply
to today's meeting places on the internet?
Would you accept me as your friend on Facebook
if I said, "Sorry, I can't tell you who I am.
I have to be anonymous to protect my safety.
Trust me, I want to be your friend and you ought to be my friend."
You would probably decline.
Well, you could do that for other reasons as well,
but if we take this as an example.
Rule number 2 is often:
remember that a lot of people on the internet
are lying about their true identity.
Well, duh! They've listened to rule number 1
wouldn't you say? (Laughter)
But these are actual rules,
that are disseminated among children, parents and teachers.
2010!
There's also a fact that has emerged the last couple of years.
We don't know for sure,
but there is a connection
between giving out personal information
and online risks.
And among the online risks that we are afraid of are harassment,
and sexual predators seeking their victims online.
So there's no simple connection
between divulging your personal information
and these risks.
We do however know,
that the greatest danger you face if you're young today,
is having a troubled life away from keyboard.
That's the most common common denominator,
among the victims that have been studied.
And that's not really a problem we can solve with compiling lists.
That's more even adult responsibility
to see to that every child has the same chance
to feel good about themselves.
Another thing we have to remember,
is that most sexual assaults against children
are happening in an environment where the child should feel protected.
And the abuser is most often
someone the child should be able to trust.
Parent, a step-parent, a football coach, a teacher, etc.
That fact hasn't changed.
The internet has not changed that fact.
Another common way of trying to protect children
is creating black lists and white lists
of websites that are good or bad.
This comes from a tradition of media studies
where you are trying to find out how media
changes people,
what happens when they consume media?
But how about today's media,
when the content of the media is user-generated?
How can we black list or white list these places?
What happens if someone writes something bad
in a white-listed website.
What happens to that website and those tips?
It is a good thing to think before you post.
Not only for young people, that goes for any of us.
Because we have to think about the fact
that what goes online stays online.
As far as we know today, that's a fact.
Most probably, the things we post online,
will stay there forever.
So that could be a good tip.
But what more important I think,
is to think about
how to react upon this fact.
We have to have a relationship to eternity,
and we are not very good at that.
We often try to skip those questions.
If children ask us,
"When does the universe end?"
we are not very keen on answering that question.
But we have to have a relationship to eternity today.
As I remember it,
adults use to comfort young people.
We use to say to teenagers,
"Don't worry, not everyone is laughing at you.
Oh, you will fall in love again,
your life isn't over."
But as soon as the internet is involved,
we're the ones panicking.
"Oh but the future employer will Google you!
Your life is over."
And that doesn't make sense to me.
What we not need now,
is adults who feel like experts.
And most people who are adults
are actually experts on problems that occur online.
We need to be experienced from life.
Well, everyone is.
We need to have young people around us.
We need to look them into the eyes
and see how they feel
and act upon that information.
And also, we need to have a critical mind,
so that we don't swallow everything that is presented to us.
As I see it, it's as simple and as complicated as that.
Thanks for your attention.
(Applause)