Internet Safety for Children - DiVA portal

Internet Safety for Children

Stranger danger, misbehaviour and problems when online

Seamus Fergus

Information Security, master's level (120 credits) 2018

Lule? University of Technology Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering

Abstract

The Internet has evolved and continues to evolve rapidly and as adults we understand the need to be careful with various issues including our privacy, scams, bullying and as adults we stumble across unwanted material that might be considered inappropriate. Children also need to be protected and this thesis will research what children do when they are online, and what protection is currently given to children.The research will also include input from teachers and parents and find out what experiences they have and what they are doing to protect children.The thesis will involve software testing to evaluate how effective parental control software is, and possibilities of it being hacked.This research will concentrate on smartphones, and in particular the Android operating system, the reason is that Android phones can be purchased cheaper than an iPhone, and therefore are more likely to be used by a child. A developer's version of Android can also be configured to run it in a virtual machine running on a PC which makes various testing possible. The thesis will also involve reviewing other organisation's research and findings and how it compares to my own research. The thesis will give advice on how to move forward in relation to keeping children safe online.

Keywords

Information security, parental control, smartphone, Android systems, experimental study, qualitative research.

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................... 2

1.1 CYBERSAFEIRELAND ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 PURPOSE ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 1.3 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY .......................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 DISPOSITION................................................................................................................................................... 4

2 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 5

2.1 STRATEGY AND APPROACH .............................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................................................................... 5

2.3.1 Interviews .................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 2.3.2 Questionnaire............................................................................................................................................................................ 6 2.3.3 Seminars .................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3.4 Software testing ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3.5 Internet search .......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

2.4 OVERVIEW OF DATA COLLECTION ..................................................................................................................... 8

3 KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS............................................................................................................ 9

3.1 INFORMATION SECURITY: CONFIDENTIALITY, INTEGRITY AND AVAILABILITY ........................................................ 9 3.2 PRIVACY ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 3.3 AUTHENTICITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY............................................................................................................ 12 3.4 IDENTIFIED RISKS WHILE USING THE INTERNET ................................................................................................ 13 3.5 POPULAR SOFTWARE AND APPS FOR SMARTPHONES .......................................................................................... 13 3.6 WAYS CHILDREN CAN BYPASS PARENTAL CONTROL SOFTWARE ......................................................................... 14 3.7 CYBERSTALKING .......................................................................................................................................... 15 3.8 SEXTORTION................................................................................................................................................. 17 3.9 WHAT TO DO IN THE EVENT OF CYBERSTALKING .............................................................................................. 17 3.10 RECOMMENDATIONS TO PROTECT CHILDREN ONLINE........................................................................................ 18 3.11 PRIVACY-BY-PROXY...................................................................................................................................... 19

4 FINDINGS .................................................................................................................................... 21

4.1 INTERNET HABITS AND USE ............................................................................................................................ 21 4.2 PARENTAL CONTROL SOFTWARE..................................................................................................................... 22

4.2.1 Qustodio................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 4.2.2 Norton Family parental control............................................................................................................................................. 24

4.3 METHODS ON HOW TO BYPASS PARENTAL CONTROLS ....................................................................................... 27

5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .................................................................................................. 31

5.1 CHILDREN .................................................................................................................................................... 31 5.2 TEACHERS, PARENTS AND GUARDIANS ............................................................................................................ 32 5.3 ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE AND UPDATED SYSTEM................................................................................................ 33 5.4 DEVELOPERS ................................................................................................................................................ 34 5.5 PARENTAL CONTROL SOFTWARE..................................................................................................................... 34 5.6 YOUTUBE .................................................................................................................................................... 35 5.7 WEBSITES .................................................................................................................................................... 36

6 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ........................................................................... 38

6.1.1 Appropriate classification ...................................................................................................................................................... 38 6.1.2 Service providers..................................................................................................................................................................... 38 6.1.3 Education................................................................................................................................................................................. 38 6.1.4 Digital age of consent............................................................................................................................................................. 39 6.1.5 Android platform..................................................................................................................................................................... 39 6.1.6 Privacy..................................................................................................................................................................................... 39

6.2 FUTURE RESEARCH........................................................................................................................................ 39

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 41

APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW GUIDE ....................................................................................................... 44

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE .......................................................................................................... 46

1

1 Introduction

There has been much recent media attention given to people's data privacy and also keeping children safe while online. Even for adults we know the way we can accidentally stumble across inappropriate pictures and how we can receive spam emails ranging from scams to fake medicine with completely inappropriate text even for adults. It's very hard even for an adult to avoid it, and there are legitimate concerns as this is highly inappropriate for children. Keeping children safe online includes keeping them protected from viewing material which is suitable only for adults, there is also material which is illegal which children may accidentally encounter while surfing the Internet. We should ensure that no conversation should develop which is inappropriate or that inappropriate language be used while a child is on the Internet is also important.We should ensure that the Internet will not be used as a channel for children to be bullied, groomed or some type of extortion to take place. This thesis addresses the question, how to make children safer while on the Internet.

1.1 CyberSafeIreland

CyberSafeIreland (2017) is a recent report which has an in depth analysis and which follows the subject matter. The fact that it is a recent report in an area which fluctuates and changes rapidly makes it useful for this thesis. CyberSafeIreland has been in existence for just over two years and provides parents and teachers with guidance on using technology in an informed and safe way for children under the age of 13. According to CyberSafeIreland (2017) they refer to the EU Kids Online survey, which is referred to as the most comprehensive European survey of its kind, that younger children were active online, with or without the permission of their parents. The survey results was that 52% of 11-12 year olds had a social media profile and one in five for 9-10 year olds. CyberSafeIreland (2017) state that the handling of underage social media use is set to become an even more important topic with the coming into effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018.

CyberSafeIreland (2017) did research in 2016 and 2017 and spoke directly to 4,893 children aged between 8 and 13 and also 885 parents. Amongst the 628 children surveyed for the research Snapchat and Instagram were the most popular instant messaging among the group and the children used social media apps along with Musical.ly,YouTube,Viber and WhatsApp. The survey showed 16% of the children spend over 4 hours online a day, and 22% of the children surveyed were in online contact with strangers. Most of these (14%) reported that they were in contact at least once a week and 6% of this number stated it was every day. Almost a third of children have either never spoken to their parents or guardians about online safety or have not done so in the last year. During CyberSafeIreland workshops with 8-10 year olds, 64% of the time at least one child was playing adult rated games. The research also showed 12% of all children surveyed in the report had shown themselves in YouTube videos. CyberSafeIreland are a charitable organisation so it could be considered presenting findings with no bias, and to be honest. A number of other studies from other agencies were also identified such as a report from UNICEF from Lansdown, G. (2012) titled "Child Safety Online Global Challenges and strategies", and also U.S. Dept. of Justice (2010) titled "the national strategy for child exploitation prevention and interdiction". These reports will be given consideration,

2

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download