Are today's young people raised in Captivity?
Dr Tanya Byron - author of the 2008 Byron Review into child safety on the
Web and when using videogames - has stated that the risk-averse society we are currently living in
is keeping children cooped up at home on a "global playground" called the
Internet, where they can be at greater risk than if allowed out more,
The Telegraph
reports.
Speaking at the annual
gathering of Britain's Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, "the industry body
that regulates sexual content in publications for young people," Dr Byron suggests that adults need not only to
understand the potential risks but the nature of the playground itself, how - if
parts of it have curfews/watersheds or are deemed off-limits to young people
- they could simply move on to other more risky areas.
Dr Byron said that many adults had responded to her review by suggesting
that the Internet should be shut down completely, or that a 'watershed' must be
imposed so that children cannot access it after 9pm and so on - showing their failure to
understand the internet itself and it's benefits. Instead she said parents and teachers "should learn more
about what young people are doing online."
You can listen to Dr Byron speaking - as a parent, psychologist, and
researcher - at the Oxford Internet Institute, "Beyond Byron: Towards a New Culture
of Responsibility"