TOP SURVEY NEWS: 'The Dangers of the Internet'

"Red Card for Child abuse on the Web" : In association with Ecpat, an international non-profit organization devoted to child protection from sexual abuse and exploitation, Prasena has designed an online survey with the view to understand children's use of Internet, their information and awareness of risks, their exposure to, and their attitude towards possible dangers. This survey was first conducted in Thailand in August 2002.

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- Press Release October 9, 2002 (see below)
- Press Conferences - Visuals
- Key findings (click to download Fact Sheet with detailed results data for your own analysis)
- 'Children @ Risk Online' (click to download, a 600 Kbyte Powerpoint Presentation of the survey findings)
- Press Coverage: in Innovazione Italy, Bangkok Post, The Nation, Singapore Straits Times, SaferInternet, Pannakaya, Database
and in Thai on SiamGuru
- Supported by: Bangkok Post, PRU, Accor Asia Pacific, British Embassy and Frontier Digest

Prasena used its expertise in online survey design and development to assist Ecpat in an endeavor we considered socially important, as well as fitting well in Prasena's research on the role of Internet in the Cybernetic Era. Prasena designed a complex set of four questionnaires, adapted to 7-to-11 year-old children, 12-to-25 year-old youths, parents and teachers. Each questionnaire contained close to 100 questions, covering children and youths' use of Internet, webcams, online games, emails, instant messaging, ICQ, dating boards, chat-lines, their virtual correspondents, friends and confidents, their exposure to, and attitude towards pornography, their awareness of dangers, and the shocking experiences they had in relation with the Internet. Parental and teacher awareness, support and involvement were also covered.
Prasena's Research Director, Isabelle Michelet processed the captured data and produced the analysis of the survey results.

For more information, please contact Prasena, at contact@prasena.com or at +66-1-2571145.

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Press Release:
October 9th 2002 - "Thai children in danger while using the Internet"

An online survey has identified several risks Thai children face while on the Internet, signaling how a new 'digital divide' is emerging between parents and children, and prompting calls for a better education for everyone about the risks that children face online.
The survey, entitled ``Are Our Children at Risk Online?'', was designed by consulting company Prasena and conducted by ECPAT International, an international non-governmental organization based in Bangkok, which seeks to "End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes". The aim of the project was to ascertain what dangers the Internet posed to Thai youth in regards to child sexual exploitation. The results will be utilized to assist ECPAT to design appropriate action in combating online child sexual exploitation in Thailand.

Dangers of the Internet
The survey, funded by the British Embassy and also supported by the Bangkok Post, Frontier Digest and modern rock band PRU, highlighted several areas where children and youth are at risk, but the most potentially hazardous area would be in real life meetings. In all, 24% of children and 37% of youths had at least one 'physical' meeting with someone they had only communicated with online, while another 42% of children said that they would like to meet their virtual friends at some point.
However, the survey showed that the majority had been surprised by the identity of the person they had met and for quite a few, the surprise was a nasty shock.
Several respondents had experienced terrible outcomes from unwanted distribution of their personal information, whilst others were aware of the possibility of it happening to them without being deterred from sharing their personal details.

Exposure to Pornography
The survey found that nearly all of the children and youths who used chat lines had been invited to speak about sex online. It is interesting that many of them, even if changing the subject, continued to talk to the same person, and very few were shocked enough to stop using chat lines altogether. By remaining in contact with the person or simply changing subject, they leave themselves open to further manipulation and exploitation.
The survey also pinpointed a high rate of exposure to pornographic material -- and a high rate of acceptance of it. A very high percentage (71%) of youths had voluntarily visited a pornographic website and another high percentage (52%) said they believed that it was all right to trade naked pictures of movie stars.

No Adult Guidance
A high percentage of children and teenagers access the Internet alone, and due to lack of adult involvement, 38% to 44% of children and youths are left entirely on their own to venture on to the Internet at all times, making them a vulnerable target.
As for parental protection, nearly one-third of children and teenagers had parents and teachers who either did not care or did not understand about their Internet use.
In all cases where children or youths are shocked or upset by an Internet-related experience, their reaction is seldom to discuss this with parents or a teacher. A similar pattern is found when an on-line friend turns out to be an impostor or when a real-life meeting with an on-line friend turns sour. The older the child, the more likely he or she is to keep this incident to themselves, with 45% of teenagers who detected an impostor doing this and 22% of people who had a shock when they met someone who was not whom they had expected saying that they had kept this a secret, not even telling their friends.

Action Needed
Commenting on the survey's findings, child psychologist Dr Panpimol Lotrakul M.D. of Thai Health, the Health Promotion Foundation, said that "Thai children are often cocooned by their parents until quite late in their development, and they are mostly raised to obey adults' requests whatever their own opinion. Both factors make it very difficult for them to resist adults who would make unseemly propositions to them" she explained. Dr. Panpimol suggested that the best prevention was communication. She noted that while teachers today may show children how to use the Internet as a tool, they mostly did not warn about the bad things that could happen or tell them what to do when something bad did happen, such as when they were propositioned in a chat room. ``Parents must sit down and talk with their children. They should remember that the time has gone when children's only source of learning was their parents and teachers, and therefore not to talk about a subject means that children will hear about it from possibly questionable sources," she said.
Guy Thompstone, a social worker with ECPAT, added that parents should start teaching their children how to navigate safely in the virtual world in the same way as they are doing today for the physical world: "Parents repeat to their children about not going in a stranger's car. Now they should add 'do not go in a private chat room with a stranger'," he said. As for schools, they should ensure that all teachers - and not only those in charge of computer training - regularly discuss with their students about the matter.
Prasena's research director Isabelle Michelet said that "surely, the survey participants are from well-educated communities, mostly in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, with easy access to new technologies, and therefore not representative of the entire Thai population of today.
"However, considering the exponential speed at which new people get access to these technologies with the support of the Thai government, and noticing how fast and easily children take to these fascinating toys, the survey's results should certainly be taken seriously by all parents, educators and authorities, because the entire population will be affected sooner than they think," Ms Michelet added.
ECPAT International will soon initiate a project with the Thai schools system and Internet cafes, to raise awareness around these issues and teach children how to report solicitation and pornography.

Business Director Prasena, Philippe
Kopcsan and the Regional
Coordinator from Ecpat at Launch
Press Conference in Bangkok

Background
ECPAT International has worked on the forefront of global initiatives to combat commercial sexual exploitation of children being serving as co-organizer of both the First and Second World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) held in 1996 and 2001 respectively. ECPAT began in Thailand in the early 90's as an informal network of concerned activists working to highlight the growing instance of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Asia. This work gradually extended to formalized linkages with other groups and organizations around the world, which were working for the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children in their countries. The ECPAT network is currently comprised of members in 72 countries around the world.