LONDON, (Reuters) – Children will be taught about online dangers with a new “Green Cross Code” for internet safety under plans launched by the government on Tuesday.
The lessons are part of a strategy, “Click Clever Click Safe”, which will produce guidelines for government, industry and charities on how to protect children using the web.
“The internet provides our children with a world of entertainment, opportunity and knowledge — a world literally at their fingertips,” said Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
“But we must ensure that the virtual world is as safe for them as this one. We hope that `zip it, block it, flag it’ will become as familiar to this generation as `stop, look, listen’ did to the last.”
The government says that 99 percent of children aged 8 to 17 now have access to the internet.
However research has shown that 18 percent of young people had come across “harmful or inappropriate” content online, and 33 percent of children said their parents were unaware of their web activities.
The new plans, drawn up by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) which is made up of over 140 organisations, including Google, Microsoft, and Bebo, would make online safety lessons compulsory for those over 5 from Sept. 2011. Internet companies, charities and the government will be checked to ensure they meet standards set by UKCCIS, and parents will be able to seek advice from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre. Children and parents will be encouraged to use a “Zip it, Block it, Flag it” code, which advises youngsters not to pass on personal details, to block contact from an unknown source and to report any websites or online behaviour that cause concern.
Brown said the aim was to make advice as well-known as the “green cross code” which was designed in the 1970s to give children information about road safety
Professor Tanya Bryon, whose report last year formed the basis for the plans, said failing to tell children about online risks made them more vulnerable.
“This is the first time in the world any country has a national strategy for child internet safety,” she told Sky News.
