Child Online Safety Forum of China 2017

Here on the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform, we collaborate with those with an interest on child online safety across the globe, namely through our annual Safer Internet Day celebrations. We were delighted to hear from the convenors of the Chinese Safer Internet Day Committee recently, with information on an event in the country.

Date 2017-11-07 Author Chinese Safer Internet Day Committee
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The Child Online Safety Forum was held in Guangzhou No.2 Children's Palace on 23 September 2017. Children, parents, government officials and corporate representatives participated in a range of activities to discuss online safety issues in relation to children and young people.

The participating children had formed a research group in advance of the forum, and thematic research was conducted in their schools. During the forum, findings on the topics of "parental relations", "digital language" and "e-learning software" were shared and reported on. Formal presentations were following by an interactive session with adult observers from government, the business sector, schools and families to further investigate and discuss the situation.

The 2017 Guangdong Children's Media Literacy Report was also released at the forum. The research was conducted by the Guangdong Children Netizens' Media Literacy research team. Online questionnaires were distributed randomly in the province, and 6,275 valid responses were received. Children aged 3-14 and their parents were interviewed as part of the study.

Mr. Zhang Haibo, Director of the Children's Media Literacy Education Research Centre of China National Youth Palace Association, shared the research outcomes and indicated the key online behaviours discovered in the study. He especially stated that, in terms of digital knowledge, children in junior high school start to show better understanding than their parents. He added that parents need to pay extra attention when their children reach the age of 14.

Key findings from the report included:

  • More than 23 per cent of preschool children (3-6 years old) use the internet for more than 30 minutes every day.
  • By the age of 5, 31.9 per cent of children are using the internet for more than 30 minutes every day.
  • 24.2 per cent of 7-year-old-children play online games, while 61 per cent download a favourite game, video or music to their mobile phone or tablet, and 8.9 per cent actively add friends on social media.
  • Children are using social media at a very early age: even 3-year-old children have QQ or WeChat accounts (social media accounts). In addition, 9.9 per cent of 7-year-old-children are using QQ and 15 per cent of them are using WeChat. By the age of 12, the number has surged with 87.9 per cent using QQ and 69.7 per cent using WeChat. This indicates that more than two thirds of 12 year olds are active on social media platforms.

Find out more about Safer Internet Day (SID), the annual, global celebration of a better internet.

Visit the profile page for the Chinese Safer Internet Day Committee.
 

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