Children and ICT services

From their earliest years, young children are using ICT services every day, whether in school or at home. Most of them also have mobile phones, which in addition to telephone and text messaging, can also be used to access ICT services. Although there are some Internet services specially designed for children, most of the Internet services being used by children, eg search engines, downloading, chat rooms, and web pages in general, were designed originally for use by adults.

The use of such services by young children is not without risks. The risks arise because of the ability of ICT products and services to enable the child to communicate. The concern, especially for parents, is the thought of the child communicating with unknown or undesirable contacts through text messaging, email, chat rooms or other forms of electronically mediated interaction. In addition, there is the risk of the child gaining access to harmful material, and the risk of the child being targeted by dysfunctional adults, by means of ICT services.

ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, has already addressed the question of ICT product and service design, by producing new guidelines (more details here). The issues involved in the use of ICT services by young children is now being addressed by a new ETSI project. The objective of this project is to establish new guidelines for service providers who are providing ICT services which are being used by young children. More details about this project can be found here, including drafts of reports, and conference presentations.

A White Paper on “Young Children and ICT – current issues in the provision of ICT services for young children” has just been published (ETSI White Paper No. 2 – it can be downloaded here)