Creating a secure online environment for youth

Authorities, experts and Internet service providers called for a clean cyberspace environment and improved awareness of web security among youth during a conference in Shanghai over the weekend.

About 175 million juveniles in China, or more than 93 percent of the total, were using the Internet last year, Meng Jijie, deputy chief of the policy and regulation division of the Shanghai cyberspace administration said. He was citing a survey report jointly published by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the China Internet Network Information Center.

The survey found that 32.9 percent of primary school students had begun surfing the Internet before they started school. About 46 percent of minors said they had faced illegal or harmful information such as bullying, gambling, drug abuse and pornographic content, while about 20.8 percent were unaware of privacy protection when using the Internet.

She said Shanghai has launched a summer program to clean the Internet environment for youth and a special campaign to crack down on pornographic and vulgar content online this year. She also encourages citizens to report malicious information online to authorities by calling 12377 or 021-5505 6666 to make their contribution to “weave a security net” for children.

Yao Jianlong, director of the Shanghai Research Institute for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, said juveniles could be criminals and also victims of online crimes, so it’s crucial to build up a green cyberspace environment by legislation.

As a father of two children, he also said: “We need to believe in our young children and not to be over anxious. We need to develop our own awareness of web security together with our children. We should not teach them swimming while staying on the shore.”

During the conference, a student from a local school read a proposal calling for his peers to use the Internet legally in rational and self-disciplined ways. Eight Internet companies, including eastday.com, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu, joined an alliance to create a secure online environment for youth.