Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents!

MORE than half of Australian children are smarter than their parents when it comes to going online, enabling them to outwit adult restrictions.

Fifty nine per cent of children have ways of hiding what they're doing online - and their parents know it, a survey by internet security specialist McAfee has found.
Of all age groups, children are the most adept at managing their "digital footprint", or how they appear online.
"Children are far better at managing their profile controls and what their identity looks like to others," Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre CEO Associate Professor Jane Burns said.
In a the telegraph.com.au survey, one in four people said they had been left behind by their children's online knowledge and one in three were worried they weren't able to protect their children from web dangers.
Associate Professor Burns said that, rather than be embarrassed about asking for help, parents should embrace their children's cyber smarts.

"Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents."

"There is a great capacity for them to be a teacher for you," she said.
Building trust and rapport early was the key to being a parent in the online age: "Young people are far more technically savvy than their parents.
The reality is, even if parents think that they have control of what their children are doing online, they are pretty savvy and eventually the shift will occur. Children will tell them to back off."
She said parents should treat internet conversations the same way they first taught their children to cross the road or play in the park.
"The first time you do this you make sure they're with you and they're holding your hand and you explain to them why it is important," she said.
"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older."
She said parents trying to start a conversation with their children should understand that they saw the web in completely different ways.
"Technology is now so embedded in children's lives that they don't differentiate between online and offline worlds," she said.
"There is no distinction - you are creating relationships, full stop - and they can teach you things."
"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older."
"If you've got the rapport it becomes a lot easier to ask your children to show you how they keep themselves safe - and they can teach you things as they get older."

Associate Professor Burns said that, rather than be embarrassed about asking for help, parents should embrace their children's cyber smarts.

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