Internet safety education for youth: stakeholder perspectives

BMC Public Health

Elizabeth D Cox³  Henry N Young²  Kaitlyn Bare³  Katie G Egan¹  Megan A Moreno⁴ 

[1] School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA;School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA;School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA;Seattle Childrens Research Institute, University of Washington, M/S CW8-6 PO Box 5371, Seattle, WA 98145-5005, USA

关键词: Pediatrics;    Survey research;    Patient education;    Parent education;    Online safety;    Internet safety;   

Others  :  1162138
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-13-543

 received in 2012-04-16, accepted in 2013-05-17,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Internet use is nearly ubiquitous among US youth; risks to internet use include cyberbullying, privacy violations and unwanted solicitation. Internet safety education may prevent these negative consequences; however, it is unclear at what age this education should begin and what group is responsible for teaching this topic.

Methods

Surveys were distributed to key stakeholders in youth safety education including public school teachers, clinicians, parents and adolescents. Surveys assessed age at which internet safety education should begin, as well as experiences teaching and learning internet safety. Surveys of adults assessed willingness to teach internet safety. Finally, participants were asked to identify a group whose primary responsibility it should be to teach internet safety.

Results

A total of 356 participants completed the survey (93.4% response rate), including 77 teachers, 111 clinicians, 72 parents and 96 adolescents. Stakeholders felt the optimal mean age to begin teaching internet safety was 7.2 years (SD = 2.5), range 2-15. Internet safety was regularly taught by some teachers (20.8%), few clinicians (2.6%) and many parents (40.3%). The majority of teachers, clinicians and parents were willing to teach internet safety, but all groups surveyed identified parents as having primary responsibility for teaching this topic.

Conclusions

Findings suggest agreement among key stakeholders for teaching internet safety at a young age, and for identifying parents as primary teachers of this topic. Clinicians have a unique opportunity to support parents by providing resources, guidance and support.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Moreno et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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