Paul Hopkins: Why are we leaving our children online, alone?

Four in five primary schoolchildren have unsupervised access to smart devices in their bedrooms, according to a new study. Just a minority said their parents or caregivers could see what they were doing online.

New research by Ireland's online safety charity, CyberSafeKids, highlights a significant lack of parental engagement in monitoring online activities and awareness of safety risks. The survey was conducted among 2,000 primary schoolchildren aged between eight and 12-years-old. The findings show that 82% of young children are allowed to use smart devices unsupervised in their bedrooms. This level of access increased their risk of being exposed to inappropriate sexual and violent content, contact from strangers, and excessive screen time. It also decreased the possibility of them telling a trusted adult if something went wrong as they probably weren't supposed to be online at the time, the report said.

And 28 per cent of those 82 per cent said they could go online whenever they wanted, while half of the children acknowledged they spent too much time online.

CEO of CyberSafeKids Alex Cooney said there was too much social pressure for children to be online and it was often before they were ready. “We urgently need to provide better support to parents so they feel more confident about engaging with their children about their online activity, setting limits, using parental controls and even holding off on giving children devices or access to social media if they feel their child is not ready.

“It's not all on parents, however. Big Tech too needs to be compelled to create safer online spaces for children.”

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has given rise to a host of unexpected dangers, including AI-powered online grooming, deepfake cyberbullying, and highly addictive social media algorithms designed to push harmful content.

Research from Dublin City University’s Anti-Bullying Centre in 2024 found that platforms such as TikTok and YouTube “serve high levels of harmful content to teenage boys, ranging from toxic masculinity to misogyny”. Add that to the growing dominance of AI-generated misinformation, and the urgency to protect children online has never been greater.

Parents need to stay informed, about parental control apps that offer screen time management, location tracking, and harmful content filters that can be effective in managing children’s online activity. Set screen time boundaries as excessive screen time can affect a child’s mental and emotional well-being. Establishing clear guidelines on internet usage helps promote a healthy balance.

My psychologist friend from Magherafelt tells me over the phone: “As excessive internet use spirals and AI becomes deeply integrated into classrooms and households, parents must stay aware of emerging risks, from deepfake cyberbullying to harmful AI-generated content.”

Almost 20 years after it was first mooted, the iPhone has made Apple the world’s most valuable company (with a market capitalisation of $3.3 trillion as of this month) but, in a way, that’s the least interesting thing about it. What’s more significant is that the late Steve Jobs’ iconic invention sparked off the smart-phone revolution that changed the way we humans function – for better and for worse.

Jobs’ seminal insight was that what was up to then just a one-dimensional mobile phone could be a powerful, networked hand-held device which could be used, not only to make voice calls but to access the internet – and with all that that entails – and do a myriad other things like check your bank balance, check your physical activity, monitor you heart and other bodily functions, check out at the checkout, and, oh, take photos, those ubiquitous selfies. And the biggie? Keep you wired up, tuned in and turned out to the big wide world, effectively making it today the global village once cited by Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher who also coined the adage that the medium is the message.

There’s a downside to this world of constant connectivity in which people are never offline and are increasingly addicted to their devices to the point of social isolation. They become those pedestrians who walk into obstacles because they are looking at screens rather than at where they’re going, or crash the car for similar reasons.

The technical capabilities of modern phones are formidable and the ingenuity of their apps often mind-blowing. At the same time, smart-phones are also surveillance devices made in hell – tracking one’s every move, click, and swipe. Some of the apps are tailor-made vehicles for, sadly as we are learning, stalking, bullying, and harassment.

Of potentially vulnerable children...