Connected Blog

As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

Age-by-age: what do parents feel about their children using the net?
Early years’ parents
“Viruses and breaking the machine”
Concerns of parents of younger children (7 to 8 years) tended to be quite basic, i.e. focusing on breaking the computer or downloading viruses. They did not expect their children to surf much or really experiment although some had begun to try to communicate some of the basic rules around safety and had banned
certain sites.

Later Primary parents
“Accidental stumbling”
Parents of children in this age group (9-11 years) were beginning to feel more concerned about their
children stumbling across inappropriate material or being exposed to paedophile activity. However, they still felt reasonably confident about being in a position to monitor and control their children’s internet activity.

Parents of secondary
“Inappropriate communication”
The parents in the sample who expressed the greatest levels of concern were those whose children were in early secondary school. Parents of younger teens were particularly concerned about social networking sites and gaming communities. Their concerns centred around: Inappropriate sharing of personal details; the risks of befriending a paedophile; and the posting of inappropriate images.
They felt that the changing lifestage (and a growing interest in the opposite sex) coupled with their growing knowledge and confidence in using the internet meant a greater potential for inappropriate behaviour on-line. (Parental knowledge decreases here)
Parents of and children in the 10 to 15 year old age group were also particularly concerned about cyberbullying. (Mostly on MSN chat)
Most teenagers were confident that if they did end up somewhere they didn’t want to be they could just click away.

Parents of senior secondary
“Let them get on with it”
Parents of the oldest children in the sample felt that there was less they could do
to control their children’s safe use of the internet and tended to assume that their
children would be more aware and sensible by this point anyway. They were
more prepared to turn a blind eye and ‘let them get on with it’.

As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

Most 8-11s do not trust what they see on television (44%) and actually trust material on the internet more (59%). Older children show similar patterns of trusting the internet (61%) significantly more than the television (47%).

Rural children show an apparently greater belief in the integrity of what they find online; all of this points to children evaluating what they find on the web (maybe more than what they see on the television). Around 56% at all age groups evaluate websites in some way, mostly by asking someone else if they have visited it or taking its look, feel and up-to-dateness into account.

There is overall a greater trust of news programmes and nature programmes than, say, reality TV.

As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

Many parents argued that, superficially at least, the internet felt safe. Children could surf the internet in the safety of their own home. It kept them off the streets and gave them something to do.

Rules do exist to address concerns about the net. Current concerns are mostly surrounding illegal uses (44% are concerned about this), viruses (13%), innocently viewing pornography (11%), and only 6% are concerned about ID theft. 43% of youngsters don’t go anywhere for advice, 33% to parents and the same for schools, 20% to the net itself.

Parents need the most information – 57% don’t know where to go for information. 4 in 10 wouldn’t know who to complain to about content on the web.

“I wouldn’t listen to my parents anyway, as they don’t know enough.”
17 year old girl, London

“My Mum and Dad haven’t got a clue, I set up the virus software and parent filter, to control my brother, they should make it easier for parents to set up. The AOL has loads of options it’s really complicated”
16 year old girl, Cardiff

The level and nature of parental monitoring and controlling of their children’s internet use was very varied and often dictated by personality type and level of parental experience, as well as factors such as the age, personality and birth order of the child, previous exposure to on-line safety issues, and layout of the home. Many parents found internet usage hard to monitor and control and many did not even try. It was common for ‘rules’ to develop in an ad hoc way as parental knowledge grew.

Most kids don’t perceive there to be rules from parents, and don’t perceive conventions in the same way as real world. Meeting people for real is the main area where the safety message has not got through. Most recognise rules for publishing photos and personal info. Most friend surfers / lurkers are male and most attention seekers are female. Young females are also most likely to play with their identity.

There are different concerns about the internet between the sexes. Concern is generally greater for girls than it is for boys, more protective. Parents saw them as being more vulnerable to predators (especially as they used the internet more for chatting and socialising). Parents acknowledged that boys were more likely to access questionable material but often felt reasonably relaxed about this. They expected boys to be more experimental. Parents of sons were, typically, more relaxed about some sexual exploration arguing that boys would be boys and that it was fairly ‘normal’ for them to seek out porn at some stage or other. Many gave examples of their sons downloading pornographic ringtones or downloading and watching porn on-line. However, on reflection, some expressed concern about the extent of hard core porn on line.

Also, parents of children from more socially disadvantaged backgrounds are less able to protect against the risks of the internet and require additional support.

When asked where responsibility for protecting children is seen to lie, most in the UK say it lies with parents (97%), then schools and ISPs on equal measure and lastly government. Yet, at the same time, children themselves are seen as the number one source of help and information on the net (66%).

As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

66% of 15-24 year olds have broadband and about 82% of them have Social Networking Service (SNS) profile. Most 16-17 yrs have a profile (67%).
15% of very young children (6-11 yrs) have used Bebo, 4% have used Facebook and 8% have used MySpace. By 12 yrs most kids can describe what a SNS is, although they don’t know the term. Most adults don’t have a SNS but are more likely to if their children do (is for the purposes of snooping?).

The most likely intellectual rejectors of social networks are older teens. In social networks most people have between 1-20 friends.

Mobile net use
24% are concerned that the existing ways of controlling the web would not have any effect on the many young people accessing the net on their mobile phones. Many of those who don’t use the net (this tends to be the older generations) are most likely to also not use mobile technology. Those who do use mobile phones use them most for (2007 compared to 2005):

• Sending texts (83%, up from 79)
• Taking pictures (60%, up from 38%)
• Sending photos (44%)
• Playing games (27%, down from 28%)
• Listening to music (25%)
• Accessing email or the net (15%, up from 11%)

Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs)
100% of schools should have Acceptable Use Policies that are regularly reviewed, monitored and agreed with parents and students.

As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

29% of people in the UK have never had access before or used the net. A large number of these (17%) are nay-sayers, and never will get access to the net. The age where internet use starts to plummet is currently around 45. The reasons for this seem to be mostly down to lack of knowledge of how to use the internet or a computer. There is also more chance that a non-user thinks of the net as not making life easier, than a user believes (48% v 85%). The reasons people find for not using the net are likely to hit most on being complex, containing too much immoral material and, less so, being frustrating to work with.

Increasingly, though, access to equipment is an issue. Ironically, although costs are coming down but hardware is made more powerful and better designed, cost is seen as an increasing reason NOT to get a computer, although two thirds of internet users would find the notion of not having access a problem for carrying out their lives.

As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

What do young people use the net for?
The main use of the net, by far, is for learning: 57% use the net for homework, saying it provides more information than books. 15% use it for learning that’s not ’school’. Parents viewed the internet as a good research tool, but lamented the loss of ‘real’ research skills and worried that the information was not always appropriate or completely accurate.
40% use it to stay in touch with friends, 9% for entertainment such as YouTube (a low figure given the younger age of the part of the sample of respondents). Parents recognised the benefits of the internet as a communication tool but worried about its effect on interpersonal skills and its unpleasant side effects such as cyber bullying.

Where do people in the UK use the internet?
Most users of the net are using it at home (94%), then at work (34%), another’s house (30%) or at school (16%). Only 12% use public libraries and 9% internet cafés. Most people’s first exposure to the web is at home.
The most common technologies found in the home are: (2007 compared to 2005)

• Digital camera (61%, up from 51%)
• Digital TV (47%, up from 29%)
• Mp3 player (43%, up from 9%)
• Games Consoles (43%, n/a)
• Satellite TV (41%, down from 42%)
• Web cam (26%, up from 18%)
• Cable TV (21%, up from 17%)
• PDA (10%, up from 6%)

How do people use the net?
Most use of media is for getting information. Both users and non-users of the internet read as many books as each other, but users watch less TV (cf. Clay Shirky’s theory on “cognitive surplus”). The result is that users generally get more information in general, and as much as non-users through other sources (and face-to-face [F2F] remains the most important means). Users actually value F2F meeting more than non-users. Indeed, in ‘real world’ users are more likely to be outgoing individuals and part of a social group or club than non-users of the net.

Connected 21 is now online with articles and features on literacy, Gaelic, PE and computer games.

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/connected/articles/21/index.asp

How good is your ear for accents? How different do you think one word could sound in a variety of accents? A new interactive site entitled Sound Comparisons by Edinburgh University in conjunction with the Arts & Humanities Research Council allows you to hear the same word uttered in dozens of accents. I tried out the word “brother” and was amazed at the differences.

I’d say it’s impossible to cultivate a musical ear without being sensitive to the subtle changes in pitch and timbre which distinguish accents. Perhaps that’s why so many impressionists are musical.

Some of the pages are slow to load and using Firefox over Internet Explorer is recommended – but not as highly as downloading the entire site – which I’ve just done.

Tanya Byron’s report for the Prime Minister on children, games and the net is, as yet, nowhere to be seen on the web. However, you can find out a bit more about the report and catch up with this morning’s news reports, interviews, blog and newspaper reactions.

Anyone who is a drops in on my edubuzz blog may have noticed that the last few posts of the term pointed to new mp3s of pupils playing. The reason for this sudden increase in recording activity was that I received as a gift a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder. It is handy not least because it fits in the inside pocket of a suit jacket!

Previous recordings had been done on a mini disc recorder and, while the recording quality was very high, so too was the faff factor:

• record item(s) – which had to stay on the recorder until I got home, as there was no USB interface
• transfer recording(s) in real time into a wave editing program at home
• take the opportunity while there to cut out any extra run-in/run-out time, add fade-outs etc.
• convert the wav files to mp3 in iTunes – ensuring that I had set (in Preferences) the importing to mp3 and not AAC (Advanced Audio Coding – Apple’s own format) which was not, at that time, Wordpress compatible.
• post to the blog

Now, I don’t see it as my job to advertise the Zoom H2 on behalf of its makers, but I would like to flag up some benefits for the educational user:

• as soon as a recording is finished, simply plug into speakers and press play – no need to rake around looking for it – far less, return home and reformat. Pupils like to hear their work as soon as possible and this couldn’t be easier
• the recording quality is very high
• there are many choices* to allow one to offset quality of recording (sampling, bit-rate etc.) against practical factors (file size, upload time etc.)
• you can record straight to mp3 to save converting later
• where you’ve recorded to wav and then realise that you’re going to need more space on the 512 Mb SD card (provided) before you are going to have access to a computer, you can convert from wav to mp3 on the H2
• the H2 can be powered by mains (adaptor included) or battery – more suitable when restricted access to power points prevents the ideal placement of the H2 – a low battery warning appears to save you losing a great performance – I pushed this to the limit recently and was able to make many more recordings after the initial warning had appeared – although this would probably not be the behaviour of a professional journalist
• you can store recordings in one of eight folders – which helps to avoid confusion when pupils in different schools are recording the same item
• once connected to a computer, you can turn off and save battery power as the H2 is then power through the USB connection
• the H2, once connected to a computer, functions like any other external drive – this allows you, for example, to change the file names from STE 000; STE 001 etc. to something more meaningful like Mhairi – Wedding Song. These names, once applied, will then appear on the H2
• when connected by USB the H2, where preferred, can act as an external mic and record to programs such as Audacity – this may be an easier way to keep an eye on levels
• recording level is initially set by choosing one of 3 mic gain settings – and thereafter by adjusting the level numerically, while keeping an eye on the level indicators
• where it turns out that the performance was not as loud as testing suggested, you can amplify after recording – on the H2 or later
• long performances/discussions/interviews can be split into sections (which them become separate files) on the H2
• there are 3 recording modes (90 degrees for a solo player/speaker; 180 degrees for a linear ensemble/panel of speakers; surround – ideal for small, circular ensemble/class discussion etc.
• using the line-in function, you can record listen again programmes
• additional features include: guitar tuner function; metronome; tripod (to allow the 2 to stand on a stool, desk etc); mic stand attachment; headphones; foam protector (to reduce wind noise when recording out of doors); small canvas carrying bag (to prevent scratches on the display)
• software updates can be downloaded to the SD card and will be taken on board the next time it is inserted

There are many more features I’ve yet to explore and there are also many rival products which come in a good deal cheaper than the H2 but, if I didn’t know better, I’d say this had been designed with the educational user in mind.

* range of recording qualities

• wav44.1kHz/16bit
• wav44.1kHz/24bit
• wav48kHz/16bit
• wav48kHz/24bit
• wav96kHz/16bit
• wav96kHz/24bit
• mp3 48k; 56k; 80k; 96k; 112k; 128k; 160k; 192k; 224k; 256k; 320k;
• mp3 VBR (variable bit rate – where the sampling rate varies according to what is being played – presumably a narrower range of frequencies – including spoken word and silences – would require less information to be processed – thereby reducing file size)