Child and Adolescent Safety Statistics

Examples of new safety guidelines that did not exist either when you were growing up, or
when your parents were growing up.
My parents grew up at an age when technology was not as advanced as it is today. They
did not have any access to the internet, and safety on the internet was not an issue at the time.
However, children in today’s age are exposed to various safety issues. Children at the age of 6-8
years are using the internet. While at it, they are exposed to contact, content and conduct risks,
which were not present in the early twentieth century. Some of the new safety guidelines that
exist now but never existed when my parents were growing up include child-friendly search
engines, which ensure that children do not come into contact with online contact hat could
endanger their safety. Parents are increasingly using block in-app purchases and disabling one-
click payment options on devices being used by their children as a protective measure towards
ensuring that the children are protected from content risks. Children are being warned against
talking to strangers on the internet, as a way of protecting them against cyber-bullying and any
other fraudulent activities on the web. Further, issues of mass shooting were unheard of in
schools when our parents were growing up. Such issues have been on the rise as students are
attacked in school. Security concerns issues are now being raised, and parents are wondering just
how safe their children are while in school.
Statistics specifically related to child and adolescent safety from this current decade (2010
to present).
Research conducted in 2014 found that 1 in every 25 children in the U.S. receive
aggressive solicitations or have reported being aggressively distressed after strangers in different

online platforms made solicitations (Farrukh, Sadwick, & Villasenor, 2014). Researchers from
the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center found this figure
to be representative of online sexual harassment. Using privacy settings to safeguard sites visited
by children was found to be effective by 81 percent in protecting children from online dangers
such as strangers whose intentions could be to solicit young children sexually.
The number of children aged three to four years of age who are using the internet has
doubled between 2010 and 2015. Children spend more than 1 hour and forty minutes every day
on the internet. There is a rise in the number of children who have access to the internet. Most
parents are unaware of what their children do on the internet. However, 96 percent of children
using the internet have established their own online rules. 68 percent do not bully others, while
58 percent do not share embarrassing photos or posts from other people (Bera, 2019). Hence,
children are increasingly taking issues about online safety into their own hands, and they are
doing pretty well.
A report made in 2016 by the Cyberbullying Research Center shows that 33.8 percent of
students aged 12 to 17 years have been victims of cyberbullying at least once in their lifetime
(Internet Safety, 2019). 11.5 percent of students aged between 12-17said that they had
cyberbullied people at least once in their lifetime. Only 7 percent of parents in the United States
are worried or have expressed concerns about cyberbullying. Today, teachers teach
cyberbullying as a safety concern while using the internet.

References

Bera, A. (2019). Cyberbullying and Internet Safety for Kids (Infographic) (2019 Statistics) –
SafeAtLast.co. Retrieved 21 November 2019, from https://safeatlast.co/blog/kids-online-
safety/#gref
Farrukh, A., Sadwick, R., & Villasenor, J. (2014). Youth internet safety: Risks, responses, and
research recommendations. The Brookings Institution. Washington, DC.
Internet Safety. (2019). Internet Safety 101: Statistics. Retrieved 21 November 2019, from
https://internetsafety101.org/cyberbullyingstatistics