By Dr Martyn Wild

The cybersafety discussion is more important today than it has ever been. Not simply because of the scare stories that are emerging with ever-increasing frequency (only last Thursday [5 June] we witnessed large numbers of Australians, including at least one teacher and a police officer, identified in the worst type of child exploitation). But more so because, (i) children are changing their use of the Internet; and (ii) their parents are evidently not taking responsibility for the implications that arise from that use.

New data arising from studies very recently conducted in the UK and Australia tell us that 57% of parents are not aware how to keep their children safe online, what actions to take to minimise potential adverse impacts on their children's well-being or even what to do at times of crisis. We also know from recent work, that children are rapidly increasing their use of the Internet - up from just over 7 hrs a week in 2005 to almost 14 hours a week in 2007. A doubling in just 24 months. Add to this children's growing use of mobile devices to access the internet, a trend that will only increase with the proliferation of inexpensive mobile Internet platforms, including Apple's iPhone (to be launched in Australia in July 2008) and of course games consuls that double as wireless Internet browsers - the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS in particular. But of more importance than anything else in these trends, is the explosion amongst children of social networking - the use of the Internet to communicate, to connect and to create, annotate and share their own content -video, articles, images, photographs, and personal profile data.

So, what actions can we take to protect our children in this rapidly changing online world?

Well, clearly we need to focus more on parents - for the last 18 mths or so, we have seen cybersafety advocates delivering solid advice to teachers and to children themselves, almost always in schools. Not always well-researched advice (as we haven't had much solid research in these areas until recently) but nonetheless, advice mostly based on principles of good online citizenship.

But the same advocates have overlooked what we now know to be the most important component of any cybersafety solution - the parents. To date children's Internet usage has been thought to occur predominately in schools; and schools have been seen to be where kids do most of their learning. But on both counts, this is proving to be a fallacy. Children today are much more likely to access the Internet from home, a friend's house or a public place (such as a library) than they are at school. And of course, children are spending more time learning outside school than they ever used to - informally, and by virtue of the Internet and computer technologies.

More than this, our cybersafety advocates have traditionally worked ‘from the outside in' - that is, using the horror stories that emerge from time to time to scare children and teachers into following responsible behaviours online. Using the same shock tactics that inform our anti-smoking and binge drinking campaigns. But of course this strategy rarely works - children are risk takers and whilst some kids take more risks than others, basic child psychology (now supported by more recent physiological studies of the brain), tells us that children, especially younger children, are not well equipped to understand or act on the implications of these risks. They might understand and recite the messages we tell them but rarely does this have much impact on their everyday behaviours.

It is in this context that I have got together with Telstra to produce 5 simple strategies for parents, all based on the most recent research; and correspondingly, 5 simple steps they, as parents, can impart to their children so they can keep themselves safer online.

I invite you to find out more on these strategies, and how to become ‘a better Internet parent', by visiting www.bigpond.com/cybersafety

I hope they are of some value.

Dr Martyn Wild is Cybersafety Expert and eLearning researcher at La Trobe University and Intuitive Media Australia. Martyn manages SuperClubsPLUS, the only age-verified and actively protected social learning network in Australia for young children, 6-12 years (with upwards of 130,000 members globally). SuperClubsPLUS is an safe alternative to the wider-known social networks and actively encourages and stimulates children to practice how to be, and how to keep, safe online at all times. It has won multiple awards internationally for its education value, its innovation and of course, its cybersafety.

Telstra is an official partner of the National E-security Awareness Week.

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Visit www.StaySmartOnline.gov.au for details and step by step information on e-security.