Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jul. 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

The continuous advancement of new technology, specifically in the area of internet technology, has led to an increase in concerns surrounding children and young people’s safety when online. The following thesis describes a study of protection and security on the internet from the perspective of children and young people and contributes and expands on the findings of my Masters Dissertation which examined parents’ perceptions of children at risk on the internet. The research focuses on young people’s perspectives about what risks they face and what would keep them safe and is set within literature on child sex abusers and internet grooming. The thesis is based on an online survey which gathered information about the behaviour and opinions of 859 children and young people living in Scotland. Findings were separated into four main topics: children and young people’s behaviour on the internet, children and young people’s perception of strangers both online and offline, children and young people’s opinion of education on internet safety and children and young people’s opinion of the government’s role in relation to their safety online. Respondents’ stated that they wanted to be protected when on the internet (whilst acknowledging their own responsibility when online), either by the government or through those responsible for the content of the internet. They also provided several suggestions on how schools and the government can do more to listen to their voices and improve internet safety education. There were a number of children and young people who reported that they disclosed personal information over the internet (their own and that of their friends and family) and that they were willing to meet people in the real environment whom they had been communicating with online: many respondents’ viewed internet ‘strangers’ as different from ‘strangers’ in the real environment. Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Wood et al.’s (1976) development of the concept of scaffolding, which has been developed in an educational rather than criminological context, were identified as offering some promise for explaining the behaviour of both the victims and the offender as other theories of sexual offending (either specific theories or explanations developed from general theories) are incapable of fully providing an explanation that will encompass grooming in general and online grooming in particular. It is argued that if these theories are applied to internet safety education they have the potential to empower children and young people and make grooming tactics and approaches less effective. The findings also indicated that more child and young people-oriented protection measures may be needed. Perceptions of protection and security on the internet were wide ranging but respondents were keen to provide possible solutions and examples of how to improve their safety when online. This would suggest that communicating with children and young people when developing policy, legislation, research and educational materials is the way forward if we wish to improve their safety and eliminate or reduce the dangers they face when using the internet.

Each new medium of communication that has emerged over the past century and more has generated concern over its alleged negative effect on children. This concern has (in most cases) generated a moral panic, involving campaigning by moral guardians and office spokespeople, calls for greater regulation and subsequent response from the government or designated regulators. Based on continued inconclusive media effects research and debates over adults' and children's rights, regulation has become increasingly problematic. Such questions as how far you should restrict and protect children and how it may be possible to balance protection with rights, are complex and fraught with practical difficulties. These are the kind of questions that regulators have currently to consider. In addition, media convergence and internet technology threaten traditional regulatory structures. Such developments pose a further regulatory quandary. How are regulators attempting to tackle these issues? The thesis attempts to examine this question by exploring how regulators have responded to panics over children's media and whether their attempts have resulted in robust regulatory systems. The regulation systems analysed embrace advertising and obesity, internet chat-rooms and grooming, video games and violence and cinema regulation (the 12A classification). Case studies of these particular areas of current concern show how regulation has developed and how it works in practice, assess whether such regulation is effective and if not, recommends ways in which it could be improved.

[pt] Esta pesquisa teve como intuito verificar quais os principais incômodos e medos de crianças na internet. Foi realizada uma análise de conteúdo da pergunta O que incomodaria ou chatearia crianças de sua idade na internet, parte da pesquisa TIC Kids Online Brasil, realizada pelo Cetic.Br. Os dados analisados contemplaram uma amostra de 1.580 crianças com idades entre 9 e 16 anos em todo o território nacional, no ano de 2012. As respostas foram analisadas com o software ATLAS.ti. Entre os principais resultados, foi observado que o maior incômodo dos respondentes é a conduta das pessoas na internet, através de xingamentos, agressões verbais, invasão de privacidade, entre outros. Esse tipo de comportamento sugere uma possível falta de ética perante o ambiente virtual. Já o conteúdo mais citado foi a pornografia, sendo o mais frequente entre adolescentes e crianças mais velhos – possivelmente demonstrando que esse tipo de conteúdo está disponível e de fácil acesso mesmo sem o interesse nele. Já entre os mais novos, há uma concentração das respostas em torno de conteúdos assustadores – algo já esperado, considerando pesquisas anteriores. Em relação aos medos, coisas assustadoras foram mais citadas, seguido de pessoas desconhecidas. A dissertação indica ser necessária a reflexão sobre a importância da mediação tanto parental quanto institucional no uso e acesso à internet das crianças, por meio de um trabalho coletivo que os conscientize e ajude a lidar com os riscos e as situações citadas por eles. / [en] This research was intended to understand the most common annoyances and fears children face on the internet. To answer that, we analyzed their responses to the question What would bother or upset children your age on the internet?, which is part of the survey TIC Kids Online Brazil, conducted by Cetic.Br. The data were analyzed from a sample of 1,580 Brazilian children with ages between 9 and 16 years, in 2012. The answers were analyzed using ATLAS.ti software. Among the main results, it was observed that the biggest annoyance respondents found was coded as people who conduct acts that are considered inappropriate, such as name calling, verbal aggression, invasion of privacy, and so on. This kind of behavior indicates a possible lack of ethics to the virtual environment. The content that was cited the most was pornography, being the most frequent among kids - possibly an indication that this type of content is affordable and easily available, even if you have no interest in it. Among the younger children, there is a concentration of responses around scary content - which corroborates previous research. The scary thing that was most often cited was being contacted by strangers. This work brings out the importance of parental and institutional mediation in children s use of the internet, through a collective work that can bring awareness and help them cope with the risks and situations pointed out by them.

This thesis explores the Predicament of the Learner in an age during which an emergent Participatory Culture supported by networked computers is converging or colliding with a top-down Culture Industry model of education associated with centralised control and traditional learning media. Two case studies explore attempts to use advanced E-learning tools, the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) and Revolution (a multiplayer role-playing game) to mediate learning activities in the digital classroom. Both reveal the shifting locus of agency for managing and regulating learning and identify a need to understand how learners are creatively appropriating a range of digital media to advance self-directed learning agendas. The main study, The Agency of the Learner in the Networked University, develops these insights through a cognitive anthropology, informed by post-Vygotskian theory, focussed on the digitally mediated practices of 16 post-graduate students who enjoyed unrestricted access to the Internet from their study rooms. The findings chapters explore i) learners designing personalised learning environments to support advanced knowledge work; ii) learners creatively appropriating web-based digital tools and resources for course related study and self education; iii) learners cultivating, nurturing and mobilising globally distributed funds of living knowledge; iv) learners breaking away from lifeworld communities and learning with others in online affinity spaces; and v) learners seeking out opportunities to bootstrap themselves towards the actualisation of a projective identity through serious play in virtually figured worlds. In each case, an attempt is made to innovate conceptual tools that can help us to identify and conceptualise the New Media Literacies (conceived of as expert-like digitally mediated practices) required to exploit the full potential of new media as a resource for course related study, independent learning and self-education.

(in English): The virtual world is becoming more a part of our reality nowadays. Even children are coming into it and they are losing the ability to distinguish between the real and the virtual world. The virtual world is then an absolutely natural thing for them, including the advantages and risks that it brings. The aim of this master thesis was to collect present opinions and views on the conception of specific primary prevention in the area of cyberspace, and to analyze the currently offered programs from certified organizations for schools in Prague. The basic question of research is: What kind of topics do these preventive programs deal with? The method of this research was based on data collection through document analysis, semi- structured interviews and observation. The results show, that the most developed and complex topics in current practice are cyberbullying and netolism, leading to prevention of potential risky use of social networks and safer use of internet. When the goals of preventive programs are expressed enough specifically and sufficiently and with respect to the child, then it mostly focuses on cognitive aspects of the personality. Based on the research at the end of the thesis, there are formulated recommendations for the implementation of other primary prevention topics in...

Denna kvalitativa flerfallsstudie syftar till att skapa en fördjupad förståelse av digitalt socialt arbete. Vi vill undersöka det digitala kunskapshöjande arbetet och det digitala stödet så som det beskrivs på stödorganisationerna Bris, ECPAT och Storasyster hemsidor, avseende barns sexuella utsatthet på internet. Studiens material analyseras med hjälp av tematisk analys .Resultatet presenteras genom två centrala teman, digital informationsspridning och digitala praktiska åtgärder med tillhörande fem subteman. I diskussionen diskuteras stödorganisationernas digitala arbete utifrån teorin om nätverks- och informationssamhälle. Slutsatsen visar att stödorganisationernas informationsspridning på deras hemsidor görs i nätverkssamhället där individer kopplas samman via nätverk. Storasysters “onlinesyster” och“onlinebror” är mer lik massamhällets uppbyggnad med starkare kontakter, medan ECPATs“ snabbhjälpen” och Bris “brisboten” är mer lik nätverkssamhällets ideal med minimal kontakt. Uppsatsen har skapat en fördjupad förståelse av variationer av digital informationsspridning samt av digitalt stöd. / This qualitative multi-case study aims to create an in-depth understanding of digital socialwork. We want to examinate the digital knowledge-raising work and digital support as described on the support organizations Bris, ECPAT and Storasyster websites, regarding children's sexual vulnerability on the internet. The material of the study consists of supportorganizations’ websites and digitally published texts that are analyzed using thematic analysis. The discussion highlights the support organizations’ digital work with the theory ofnetwork and information society. The conclusion shows that the support organizations’ dissemination of information on their websites is done in the network society where individuals are connected via networks. “Onlinesyster" are more similar to the mass society with stronger contacts, while "snabbhjälpen" and "brisboten" are more similar to the ideal ofthe network society with minimal contact. The thesis has created an in-depth understanding of variations in digital information dissemination as well as digital support.