The web is one of the primary sources of knowledge especially for young people and teenagers. Unfortunately, the same is also a large container of violent images and hard contents that children often meet while surfing.
On this subject has intervened the Safer Internet Programme of the European Commission, who wanted to give voice directly to the young people with regard to the dangers of the web. From what results, Italians are more frightened by the violence that circulates in the network. In fact, among the dangers of the web, they have put in the first place this kind of contents, while European peers have placed the porn in top of the list.
To answer the question “What things on the internet could annoy your peers?” were approximately 25,000 children between 9-16 years from 25 different European countries.
44% of the Italian respondents think that, on the internet, are present contents that upset their peers. 27% gives top priority to violent content (18% of the EU average), 21% pornographic ones (22 percent of the EU average), and 10% other potentially dangerous contents. To convey this material are especially video sites. While social networks, particularly Facebook, are associated, as we have seen numerous times, to behavior risks (such as bullying) or contact (priming). Fear is the prevailing sentiment among children aged 9 and 10 years, while the boys of 11 and 12 years show more often revulsion and annoyance.
Starting from these results we heard Lucy, a mother who told us about her personal experience with his 12 year old son. “Henry is a guy very sunny and helpful. Use, like all his peers, the pc mainly for study and recreation for about an hour a day, a little more during the weekend. One night I heard some moaning in sleep by my son. I stood up and I realized that I was very upset and cried. I woke him up from the nightmare and he, evidently frightened, calmed down after a few minutes. This episode was repeated for about 6 days, but I couldn’t explain the reason. He told me that he always dreamed of being chased, just as he had seen in a video shown by a older friend. I didn’t want to betray the trust towards him, but I had to understand. I bought from the site www.endoacustica.com a key hunter which allowed me to know every detail of the chat with this guy. I realized that he was using these videos with the intention to scare Henry and there was nothing funny. It seemed to me just a principle of bullying. I contacted the boy’s parents who were very helpful in taking action. In a few days the situation returned to normal and Henry found peaceful dreams”.



