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Findings from the Insafe online survey

The Insafe survey was conducted in the form of an online multiple-choice questionnaire from 6 December 2007 – 1 February 2007. All questions in the survey were mandatory. On completion of the survey, respondents received a red, amber or green rating of their "tech power factor" and a few safety tips according to the incorrect answers they gave.

The majority of the respondents were 13 year-olds (2,241 – the primary age group targeted), surprisingly enough followed by over 18 year-olds (1,830). The lowest number of responses came from 18 year-olds (264 responses) and under 10s (453). As an added incentive, a percentage of survey respondents could win a game, which was announced on the banners that appeared on the Insafe website and some popular young people's sites (e.g. Habbo Hotel).

Some of the key findings include

Whereas youngsters seem to be careful on MSN (56% don't accept contacts if they don't know who it is), 56% would choose to make their profile public on a social networking site, and would "write a lot of things" about their life. Another 32% of respondents "don't know" whether their profile is private or public. This underlines the importance of making default profile settings on social networking sites "private" and aligning efforts between awareness raisers and.social networking providers to make "private" profiles a more attractive alternative for users of all age groups. This is an area that definitely calls for further investigation.

Young people seem to be keen to learn about internet safety: 53% say they would listen to their teacher if the situation arose and try to act differently, and only 24% state that they wouldn't pay attention because they "use the internet every day".

When registering on a games site, 36% of youngsters would give fake information, but 53% would give only the basic required information. A breakdown of figures shows that a larger percentage of younger respondents would give fake details and that a majority of all age categories except the under 10s would only give the basic required information.

62% of youngsters that received a happy-slapping photo state that they would report the event to an adult if they felt it was necessary. Nevertheless, 35% of under 10s would think it funny and send it along to friends.

73% of youngsters seem to have taken note of internet safety advice as regards going to meet someone they have been chatting with online. Nevertheless the percentage of 14 to 17 year-olds who would go alone to meet the person and sometimes even forget to tell their parents increases progressively right through to the 18 year-old age groups. This pattern can be repeatedly seen in a detailed analysis of the risks young people take online, and underlines the need to focus awareness-raising campaigns on 14 to 17 year-olds.

44% of young people would simply ignore a pornographic picture they were sent by one of their online friends. Another 36% would show it to their parents or teacher. 20% would not know what to do in such a situation. Figures show that whilst 60% of 10 year olds would show the picture to an adult, the figure progressively decreases as the child gets older. At age 17 less than 30% would report the incident, but at 18 or over 30% would report the incident. This might also reflect the relative 'banality' of pornographic content for regular Internet users.

When asked about how they would pay for a games subscription online, 83% of youngsters replied that they would ask their parents to pay with a credit card. 20% of under 10s stated that they would use their parent's credit card without permission, and another 20% of them responded that they would use fake details. However, it is reasonable to assume that the under 10s didn't understand the gravity of the question and/or were acting with bravado, as this figure drops sharply and progressively from approx. 9% and approx. 12% respectively for 11 year olds to less than 2% and 10% for 16 year-olds.

50% of respondents would try to unsubscribe if they were bothered by a problem with premium service SMS, and 36% would change their number and report the incident to a hotline. Not unexpectedly, approximately 30% of under 10s would not know what to do, a figure that progressively drops as age increases. However, 16% of the over 18 age group of would not know what to do when confronted with this problem.

In general, the results indicate that messages are getting through for some issues such as adding unknown people as contacts via instant messaging tools such as MSN. It can also be seen that the 15 to 17 year-olds use technology more than the other age groups, but also take the greatest risks. Internet safety awareness raising should focus more on this age group, with tailored strategies in particular in the area of social networking. Further research is also needed on the specific views and activities of 15-17 year olds, for instance in the areas of cyberbullying and the exploration of sexuality, which have only been explored tangentially via this survey.