Digital safety and protection of children: Challenges of the 21st-century school

Abstract

The Internet is fully integrated into the lives of children and pre-adolescents. This age group acquires technical skills easily, but lacks sufficient digital skills to ensure the safe use of such technologies. This study seeks to determine the habits, experiences and perception of risk regarding the use of Internet in students aged 9 to 12 years old and thus offer teachers keys to improving cybersecurity in the classroom. The data were obtained over the period 2015–2019 by observing a training action in which 353 students in the fourth, fifth and sixth year of primary education participated. The results confirm the widespread presence of mobile devices and that, in spite of the young age of these students, conflictive situations are repeated in the network. To tackle these issues, training and assistance are needed to work with content and aspects related to digital security. In this regard, it is important that teaching staff reflect on and be trained in positive online coexistence to empower and protect minors in the digital world from their very first connections.