Published to coincide with Safer Internet Day, the findings underline the risky environments in which some children are accessing the online world, and how young some of them are. Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of six year olds have their own smartphone and 45 per cent of 10 year olds are allowed use their smartphones in their bedrooms. The same rules should apply to protecting children online as apply to the offline world, it adds. Supervision of internet access is lower during weekends and holiday times. Some 80 per cent of parents of children aged 11 with smartphones said their child’s internet access is only sometimes or never supervised.

Source: The Irish Times February 06, 2024 16:39 UTC