Thursday 6 September 2007
Helping parents protect their children from online abuse
In Darwin today, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon Helen Coonan said that parents needed to be aware that children who post personal information on the internet are putting themselves at risk.
“This week in National Child Protection Week, we are helping to educate families through the $189 million NetAlert—Protecting Australian Families Online programme about what personal information their children may be divulging online.
“It is very alarming to hear that in a recent study, 39 per cent of children said they had put a photo of themselves online.
“Once your child posts personal details to the web, they are hard to take down and are impossible to control. And the power of search engines can be used by online abusers to track your child’s details in innocent places like clubs and sports,” Senator Coonan said.
“In developing this initiative, we have also recognised the importance of empowering parents to manage their children’s online activities safely, in line with their own family values. Never has parenting been more important but when it comes to supervising online, we recognise many parents do need help, advice and support.”
Senator Coonan said an element of NetAlert is the $85 million National Filter Scheme which will provide access to the best available internet filtering technology, free to every Australian family through personal computer or ISP-based filtering and for public libraries.
“The filters, in conjunction with other measures, can help parents deal with social and health issues, such as eating disorders and bullying that can be exacerbated by inappropriate and unsupervised internet use.
“Parents can enter keywords to help block websites containing those words, or the filters can be used to help block entire categories of content.
“There are a number of categories that can be blocked, including, in at least one of the filters, pro-anorexia and drug-related websites. The filters also allow parents to limit their child’s time on the internet and monitor sites that have been visited by their children.”
NetAlert’s highly successful outreach function has already taken the internet safety message to over 3,400 school and community groups. As part of NetAlert, over $11.7 million over four years will be provided to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to increase the number of internet safety officers by 10.
Senator Coonan said this will enable a trebling of school and community visits thereby giving parents, and those caring for children, hands-on support and practical internet safety assistance.
“Parents, grandparents and carers can visit www.australia.gov.au/netalert or call the help line on 1800 880 176 for advice about managing online safety, as well as access to free internet content filters, and information about how they work.
“The Howard Government has a serious commitment to protecting our children online that is why we have delivered a comprehensive programme using the broadest possible line of attack in the protection of Australian families online,” Senator Coonan.
Media Contact: Katherine Meier 0417 441 141