UK schools failing to give kids skills to surf internet in safety

UK schools are failing to provide young people with the skills they need for problem-free use of the internet, according to an Institute of Education study.

While virtually all 12- to 18-year-olds routinely surfed the internet at home, they needed help in dealing with issues such as legalities in downloading music and handling social encounters in emails, instant messaging and text messaging, the research revealed.

Four out of ten pupils believed that schools should give them better internet access and six out of 10 said teachers never talked to them about the web.

The Mediappro project is funded by the European Commission and conducted by researchers in nine European countries.

“While UK schools are getting some things right compared with other European countries, there are still too many children who do not get sufficient opportunity to use the internet in lessons,” said the project’s UK director, Dr Andrew Burn.

“Schools need to do more to harness the communicative possibilities of this powerful technology, which allows children to communicate, cooperate, play and learn online.”

Online activities by UK youngsters were concentrated around the use of search engines (98 per cent), email (81 per cent), instant messaging (78 per cent), and music downloading (60 per cent). The research showed that young people are more interested in communicating with friends locally than meeting strangers - use of chatrooms was lower (20 per cent) than instant messaging.

Interviews with a sample of the young people suggested that instant messaging and mobile phone texting made it easier to say difficult things, such as refusing an invitation. But these also required new social skills and sometimes led to misjudgements and the risk of offending people.

“Schools teach children face-to-face social skills,” said Andrew Burn. “They need to do the same with new technology.”