Studies of parents' online safety concerns typically centre on information privacy and on worries over unknown third parties preying on children, whereas investigations into youth perspectives on online safety have found young people to focus on threats to safety or reputation by known individuals. The case of youth who are themselves parents raises questions regarding how these differing perspectives are negotiated by individuals who are in dual roles as youth and parents. Using interview and ethnographic observation data from the longitudinal Young Parent Study in British Columbia, Canada, this analysis investigates social media and online safety practices of 113 young parents. Online safety concerns of young parents in this study focused on personal safety, their children's online privacy and image management. These concerns reflect their dual roles, integrating youth image and information management concerns with parental concerns over the safety and information privacy of their own children.
Devon L. Greyson, Cathy Chabot, Caroline Mniszak et al.
Cycling remains a popular activity for children and youth around the world, combining the fun of moving at speed with numerous health and societal benefits. However, cycling is also associated with risk for serious injury and death. Over the past decade, research has increasingly shown that improving safety for cyclists depends, in large part, on the environment they are cycling in as well as on individual safety measures such as helmet use. The pandemic provided greater opportunity for many children and youth to engage in cycling, and refocused public attention on safer cycling infrastructure such as protected bike lanes. This statement reviews the evidence supporting safer cycling infrastructure for children and youth along with the physical and mental health benefits of cycling. The advantages of active transportation for young people, and how the built environment influences their cycling safety and uptake, are discussed. An overview of measures individuals can take to improve cycling safety is followed by recommendations for clinicians, the cycling community, parents, and policy-makers.
Daniel Rosenfield, Pamela Fuselli, Suzanne M. Beno
COVID-19 has created a dramatic paradigm shift in education methods, which forced schools and universities to abandon the usual in-person education in favor of online education modules. Such a shift has extended the time and use of internet communication technologies (ICTs) by most, making online education platforms primary cyberattack targets. In this context, this study aims to explore parents, educators, and other caregivers' concerns about online education and the cybersecurity of their children and students. Thus, we conducted a survey-based study with 983 participants recruited through popular crowdsourcing platforms: MTurk and Prolific. Our results indicate a lack of technical support following cyber safety that the students received with the sudden transition to online education. Over 31% of our participants claimed that they never or rarely receive any communication related to cyber safety from the students' educational institutions. Additionally, our analysis shows that the student support structure needs to be trained and informed on the threats faced by children online and on the ways to mitigate these threats. Finally, we find a statistically significant difference between parents, educators, and other caregivers regarding their perceptions of children's online privacy and cyber safety. We conclude this work by providing actionable recommendations to promote privacy-preserving and digitally secure online education.
Abstract In today's age, the Internet has become essential for children's education and social development. Yet the very same technologies can expose children to online harm, which can negatively impact their well‐being and safety. These risks are becoming more serious as Internet penetration rises, particularly in emerging countries that have limited resources and capacities to tackle complex issues such as online sexual abuse, cyberbullying, and Internet addiction. As research on the entire range of risks that children are exposed to online is limited, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, this study aims to initiate the process of filling this knowledge gap and proposes a set of policy recommendations to address the challenge of balancing children's online opportunities and risks. A key finding from the study is the need for a multistakeholder and collaborative approach to ensure the online safety of children, which must include children themselves.
In Framing Internet Safety: The Governance of Youth Online, Nathan W. Fisk (2016) examines how the differing expectations of children, teenagers, parents, teachers, law enforcement officials, the media, businesses, and legislators have constructed online social spaces and, perhaps more importantly, the roles played by adults and children in these spaces.Fisk's research is theoretically robust, drawing upon several authors whose works are relevant to the topics of technology and social control, such as Gilles Deleuze (1992a, 1992b), Michel Foucault (1977, 1978, 1980), and Nikolas Rose (1990) to support its arguments, and its rigorous research methods include quantitative and qualitative data obtained through surveys, focus groups with both students and parents, and interviews with school officials.Throughout Framing Internet Safety, Fisk carefully examines how the conflicting practices and expectations of adults and teenagers lead to misunderstandings and missed opportunities for discussing and improving children's safety.Although the book focuses on the American context, its findings are thought-provoking and should be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand how the Internet changed-or did not change-the way people socialize.
In today's digitally-dominated era, children are increasingly engaging with online content, prompting heightened concerns for their safety.This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of how various stakeholders collaborate to ensure children's online security.While children face challenges like cyberbullying and data privacy threats on platforms like social media and online games, the responsibility to protect them is distributed among Technology companies, educators, parents, NGOs, and government agencies.Despite evident collaborations, many efforts remain surface-level, lacking the depth needed to comprehensively address online safety issues.External challenges, such as rapid technological changes, cultural differences about online safety perceptions, and varying digital literacy levels, further impede deep collaboration.However, emerging global coalitions hint at the potential of effective multi-stakeholder collaboration.The paper underscores the need for more profound, unified efforts to genuinely safeguard children online.
Ratnaditya Jonnalagadda, Pallavi Singh, Garima Seth et al.
Sustainable Development Goal target 8.7 aims to eradicate child labour in all its forms by 2025. Ten years before this deadline, the objective is far from being achieved since in 2016, about one-in-ten children (152 million in total) aged 5 to 17 were engaged in child labour worldwide, many of them as unpaid family workers in agriculture. Nearly half of the children in child labour were in hazardous work and exposed to serious health and safety risks. Moreover, about one-third of children in child labour do not attend school at all; the others go to school, but not all the time. Children in child labour are more likely to leave school early, before grade completion, and underperform in school tests. This paper reviews child labour trends, and the literature on its causes and consequences. It also discusses policies to combat child labour based on the lessons of the available evidence. Countries must combat child labour by addressing it from all its “demand” and “supply” side dimensions: by strengthening social protection to combat extreme poverty, by investing in the education to make it an affordable alternative to child labour, and by encouraging the diffusion of technologies that make it possible to do without child labour. While most countries have adopted laws that prohibit child labour, the paper argues that countries can do more to enforce these laws and regulations, where necessary strengthen labour inspections and monitoring systems, and promote responsible business practices.
Female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) involves medically unnecessary cutting of parts or all of the external female genitalia. It is outlawed in the United States and much of the world but is still known to occur in more than 30 countries. FGM/C most often is performed on children, from infancy to adolescence, and has significant morbidity and mortality. In 2018, an estimated 200 million girls and women alive at that time had undergone FGM/C worldwide. Some estimate that more than 500 000 girls and women in the United States have had or are at risk for having FGM/C. However, pediatric prevalence of FGM/C is only estimated given that most pediatric cases remain undiagnosed both in countries of origin and in the Western world, including in the United States. It is a cultural practice not directly tied to any specific religion, ethnicity, or race and has occurred in the United States. Although it is mostly a pediatric practice, currently there is no standard FGM/C teaching required for health care providers who care for children, including pediatricians, family physicians, child abuse pediatricians, pediatric urologists, and pediatric urogynecologists. This clinical report is the first comprehensive summary of FGM/C in children and includes education regarding a standard-of-care approach for examination of external female genitalia at all health supervision examinations, diagnosis, complications, management, treatment, culturally sensitive discussion and counseling approaches, and legal and ethical considerations.
Janine Young, Nawal M. Nour, Robert Conover Macauley et al.
BACKGROUND: Research examining the interrelated drivers of household violence against women and violence against children is nascent, particularly in humanitarian settings. Gaps remain in understanding how relocation, displacement and ongoing insecurity affect families and may exacerbate household violence. METHODS: = 73) in two districts in Colombia from May to August of 2017. Participants were displaced and/or residing in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of insecurity from armed groups. RESULTS: Using inductive thematic analysis and situating the analysis within a feminist socioecological framework, we found several shared drivers of household violence. Intersections among drivers at all socioecological levels occurred among societal gender norms, substance use, attempts to regulate women's and children's behavior with violence, and daily stressors associated with numerous community problems. A central theme of relocation was of family compositions that were in continual flux and of family members confronted by economic insecurity and increased access to substances. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest interventions that systemically consider families' struggles with relocation and violence with multifaceted attention to socioecological intersections.
Jennifer J. Mootz, Lindsay Stark, Elizabeth Meyer et al.
Abstract Violence against children and adolescents is a problem that cuts across all socioeconomic, educational, and ethnic groups. Its occurrence causes human suffering and considerable harm to the development of both the individual and society. In this context, education plays a vital role in preventing violence against children and adolescents. However, it is essential to understand how education professionals perceive this issue so they can act more effectively. Thus, this study aimed to understand the meanings of violence against children and adolescents according to education professionals. To this end, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted with 90 professionals from six public schools in the city of Maceió, AL. The Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure (DET) was applied, and data were analyzed according to Vaisberg. The analysis of the DETs made it possible to identify four thematic categories: (I) the naturalization and transgenerational nature of intrafamilial violence; (II) the effects of violence on the lives of children and adolescents; (III) the absence of the protective role of the state, society, and the school; and (IV) the school as the main agent in addressing violence. Education professionals represented violence against children and adolescents as a transgenerational family problem, reflecting the underlying difficulties in addressing this violence, but there was also evidence of professional engagement and recognition of the school’s potential in combating this issue.
Paula Orchiucci Miura, Melinda Torres Barros Ferreira, Ana Letícia Rios Castro Alves
