Latest Google survey revealed parents’ concerns and changing behaviours when it comes to safeguarding children’s safety online. In Hong Kong, over 8 out of 10 (82.6%) children spend 1 to 6 hours per day online, following Malaysia (83.8%) and India (82.8%) - the third-highest across 12 markets in Asia Pacific. With digital technology and internet continue to blend in children’s everyday life, 72.4% of parents in Hong Kong are confident in engaging their child on the topic of online safety, yet over half (52.8%) of them expressed that it is difficult to find age-appropriate, easy-to-understand examples to discuss online safety with the kids.
Realizing the shared vision of promoting media literacy and online safety awareness among local children and youths and their parents, Google Hong Kong have teamed up with The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS)’s WebOrganic on the “Be a Smarter Digital Citizen” programme. Leveraging Google resources and tools, WebOrganic held talks with 300 parents and children in Hong Kong on how to talk about online safety with children, with topics ranging from identifying internet scams, fake news and the optimal methods to prevent online frauds since February 2023, marking the Safer Internet Day. The programme also engaged with 1,000 students through WebOrganic’s school network, targeting to reach 3,000 in December after school examinations, through a series of videos (Primary & Secondary School Groups) developed with the support of Google.org, followed by completing worksheets and discussions to ensure they well understand the crucial concept of online safety.
Despite Hong Kong children ranked the third highest among APAC in terms of the time spending online daily, as revealed in Google’s latest survey on online safety, parents in Hong Kong do see the growing use of technology and its benefits to children as they can teach their children about online safety (67.1%), help their children explore unique interest (58.9%) and find high-quality educational content for their children (55.6%). As such, more than 7 out of 10 (72.2%) responded parents in Hong Kong expect to change rules for internet use as their children grow. 6 out of 10 parents in Hong Kong expect to use more online learning tools as their children grow. Google’s resources are here to help parents manage their relationship with technology and enable them to create healthy, positive digital habits:
· Family Link: the new Family Link webpage for Hong Kong is an easy-to-use app to help establish digital ground rules that allows parents to manage their child’s account and devices as they explore online. Parents can set screen-time limits, manage the content their child can see and know their location when they have their device with them.
· Be Internet Awesome toolkit: developed in partnership with The Net Safety Collaborative and iKeepSafe.org and available in Traditional Chinese, the curriculum, together with the Family Pledge, is designed to help parents teach children the skills they need to stay smart and safe online.
· Gamified and engaging video content created for children: the free Interland game is filled with quests inspiring children to become a confident explorer of the online world, while YouTube Kids provides a more contained environment for kids to explore YouTube and makes it easier for parents and caregivers to guide their journey
