A government report on media use by young people, that ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman says is sure to inform further debate about digital media literacy, has found 76% – 92% of parents surveyed find it easy to manage their child’s use of the Internet. The report also found that most young people do not have internet access in their bedroom (as little as 3% in the case of 7 – 8 year olds and 13% in the case of 15 – 17 year olds).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jemsweb/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
The Use of electronic media and communications: Early childhood to teenage years report brings together ACMA’s research on media use by 8-17 year olds and new findings about 3-4 and 7-8 year olds from the Australian Institute of Family Studies study Growing Up in Australia; The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
According to the report, the majority of parents of younger children found it easy to manage their child’s internet use (97 per cent of parents of 7–8s including 69 per cent very easy; 92 per cent of parents of 8–11s including 50 per cent very easy). Only twenty-two per cent of parents of 12–14s and 24 per cent of parents of 15–17s found it very or fairly difficult to manage their child’s internet use.
The report also states that the majority of parents in both studies (86–95 per cent) found it very or fairly easy to manage their child’s video/computer gaming.
Maybe it’s time politicians stopped using that old excuse about how censorship is needed because parents don’t know how to manage their children’s access to the Internet and video games. I think it’s long overdue.
14 comments
Toejam says:
Jul 15, 2009
Maybe the ACL need to drop their “it’s too hard for most parents” bullshit, too.
Mike says:
Jul 15, 2009
@Toejam. How’d I forget them
Sean the Blogonaut says:
Jul 15, 2009
Bloody porn enabling parents:)
I have got wonder at this point what is motivating labour – ideology, religion or does the ACL have pictures of Rudd sucking a strippers nipple or Conroy befriending farm animals.
Where do they think their support is coming from?
Stuart says:
Jul 15, 2009
Opps, looks like ACMA didn’t get the “
Stuart says:
Jul 15, 2009
No, the filter isn’t working yet … but apparently my enter key is.
As I was saying:
Opps, looks like ACMA didn’t get the “Think of the children!” memo and is still using old fashioned factual information. They won’t make that mistake twice.
nine says:
Jul 16, 2009
I wonder how accurate these self evaluations are. Given the majority of parents are tech illiterate, I wouldn’t be surprised if most were only mediocre at monitoring this usage. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect
Sam D says:
Jul 16, 2009
@ nine: In some says it doesn’t actually matter how effective these parents are at monitoring their children. What’s important is that they think they are effective, and therefore probably are not desperately calling for the great magic internet babysitter.
nine says:
Jul 16, 2009
If parents overestimate their ability, it suggests there is a need for outside intervention. Not that I believe the appropriate intervention is internet filtering, but it’s inaccurate to suggest this report somehow ‘reduces the mandate’ for Internet Filtering.
Australian Government Survey on Parents’ Ease of Managing Media Use | The Technology Liberation Front says:
Jul 17, 2009
[...] down under and that such content regulation is unwarranted. As Michael Meloni of the excellent “Somebody Think of the Children” blog argues: “Maybe it’s time politicians stopped using that old excuse about how censorship is [...]
Matthew says:
Jul 17, 2009
nine, even if parents do overestimate their ability, where is the actual need for the government or anyone to do “anything”? What is the problem with unfiltered access? It doesn’t seem to have effected society in any sort of bad way in the last 15 years or so (in fact I would argue that it has enhanced our lives) and the majority of “problems” are social ones which technology can’t solve. Where is the actual problem that all of a sudden needs to be fixed?
The whole argument from the censorware vendors and the likes of the ACL was that parents were crying out for a solution and were feeling overwhelmed therefore we need the filter. This survey goes right against their claims.
GW says:
Jul 17, 2009
Why is there an assumption that today’s parents are a majority technically illiterate? They may not be experts, but most of them are familiar with computers, use them at work and were introduced to them at school. Computers aren’t rare and special curios and have been available at retail level since the early 80s. They have been in schools and offices in some form since the late 80s. Since the late 90s they have been common in homes, schools, workplaces, libraries even Centrelink and Job Centres since the 90s. The ABS claims 75% of households have at least one computer and 67% have an internet connection. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/9ba0bb65ce08ccc6ca2570820081db23/acc2d18cc958bc7bca2568a9001393ae!OpenDocument
There would be many more people that use a computer at work even if they don’t have one at home. Most people use computers for something at some time. The ACL may have a greater proportion of incompetent parents for other reasons maybe?
batman says:
Jul 18, 2009
If outside intervention is needed then it should be in the form of video cameras installed into every home to make sure no child abuse occurs. The new FTTH if it ever eventuates will make this more feasible.
Daniel says:
Jul 20, 2009
The whole underlying irony of reports like these and the ensuing direction the debate afterwards takes up is the blind spot in the discourse that suddenly has the light shone on it.
Ostensibly, the discourse reflects something like “Oh God! Somebody please think of the children!! They must be protected, no matter how, from the torrent of filth threatening to flood their internet ports!”
But if you look more closely at the underlying logic, at times the rationale from Conroy, the ACL et al, seems to read more like “Children are actually perverted, uncontrolled sex addicts, whose raging desires for pornography and violence must be strictly monitored and controlled by the state, as the parental masses are too naive, lazy and stupid to do so themselves.”
Then along comes a report such as this one…
Bob Bobington says:
Jul 25, 2009
@GW
“Why is there an assumption that today’s parents are a majority technically illiterate?”
Work a single day at an ISP Helpdesk.
The fact is most people (including parents) can use a computer, but few understand them. Can you drive a car? Can you strip an engine and rebuild it?
See the difference?
Just because John can use Excel at work and play Microsoft Golf at home doesn’t mean he can adeqately stop Bob the internet perve from chatting to his daughter online.
The article here uses the term “manage their child’s internet use”. It does not say “supervise”, it does not use any words that convey protection or security. “Manage” could simply be “please do your homework before you chat on your MSM facegroup thingo, gee I’m a good parent”.
The only slightly meaningful stat here is the low number of kids with PC’s in thier bedrooms. Aside from that, it is fluff.
/Bob Bobington is against Mandatory filtering, but has no objection to the Government offering an optional one.