Teachers have expressed concern that parents rely too heavily on schools to teach their children the importance of being safe on the internet
By Rhiannon Williams
5:00AM BST 02 Jul 2014
Parents rely too much on schools to educate their children in staying safe online, according to teachers.
Nearly two thirds of teachers told online security company AVG that they have not been formally trained to teach their pupils internet safety, while 85 per cent of the 1,800 person sample said the topic should be a dedicated part of the education syllabus.
Nearly two fifths of teachers, from countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the UK and New Zealand, said they had been approached by pupils concerned by internet safety issues, while over a quarter had spoken to students worried about cyberbullying.
When approached for advice on varies online safety issues, 28 per cent of the teachers questioned, on average, felt they were ‘insufficiently equipped’ or ‘not equipped at all’ to handle the issue.
Schools in Australia were the most likely to have set guidelines for dealing with cyberbullying issues, equating to around 80 per cent of the country's schools.
While 91 per cent of UK teachers indicated their school offered IT classes, compared to around 72 per cent globally, only 37 per cent of teachers had formal training in online safety.
Tony Anscombe, senior security evangelist at AVG Technologies, said teachers are being required to keep up with technological advances with little or no formal training.
“With the next advancement in technology just around the corner schools - and Ofsted - are faced with a difficult task trying to keep up with these developments," he said. "With the curriculum in schools updated at a slower rate than technological change, Ofsted need to do more to ensure children are protected from the latest threats as the digital world evolves.”
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