Comunicar 39-ingles - Revista Comunicar

68Comunicar, 39, XX, 2012Internet. This raises the need to reflect on the mostappropriate ways in order to achieve complete digitalmedia literacy among these users.• Track design for autonomous learning. Thechanging nature of the Internet calls for the design ofstrategies and spaces (especially virtual) that reinforcesthe autonomous training of teachers in the aspectsassociated with the Internet and childhood.• Application of transversal and ongoing issues.The conceiving and design of the curriculum shouldinclude a transversal focus that strengthens the presenceof elements directed at all times at stimulating criticalreflection on the relation between the Internet andchildren. This continuity will mean that the treatmentof internet content with respect to children will not berelegated to a meaningless section of this study.2. Method and MaterialsKeeping in mind everything said thus far, this paperstrives to carry out a systematic study and analysis ofthe most relevant documentation on children and theInternet. We proceed to compile and offer a selectionof approaches and proposals that researchers, expertsand theorists, especially in the Spanish and internationalcontexts, have presented on this topic, to contrasttheir views with the focus and proposals included inthe curriculum of UNESCO.The results presented below are the fruits of a literatureanalysis undertaken on international scientificpublications of impact, as well as reports on researchrelated to the topic and on expert social organizations.The choice of material is based mainly on contributionsrelated to the risks of «grooming» and «cyberbullying»and on recommendations on how to empowerchildren and lower the risks they face on the Internet.These results are contrasted with the orientation providedin the MIL Curriculum in order to draw pertinentconclusions and prepare future lines of work inthis field.3. ResultsAmong the eight risks identified in the MIL Curri -culum of UNESCO, two that we consider to be of thegreatest social concern present today have been selected,namely grooming and cyberbullying. Both risks,indeed threats, generate a negative impact on the emotionaldevelopment of children.Two of the three major themes to work on in theUnit of «Challenges and Risks in the virtual world» are1) the work of understanding the challenges and risksof Internet use by children and 2) their empowermentthrough the responsible use of the Internet. It is thereforenecessary to train teachers in how to empowerchildren to face these challenges and risks.The aim of the literature analysis is to offer appropriaterecommendations to teachers to facilitate theireducational tasks in this subject. The following resultsare reported: the definition of cyberbullying and ‘grooming’,data on its prevalence in Spain, Europe and theUnited States and, finally, a selection of scientific andsocial recommendations are made with respect to theempowerment of children due to the challenges andrisks that daily on-line contact brings.3.1. Understanding current risks and challenges:Prevalence of grooming and cyberbullyingBullying is defined by harassment between peers.When it is measured by on-line interaction it is knownas cyberbullying. According to one of the latest publications(Law, Shapka, Hymel, Olson & Waterhouse,2012), both offline and on-line harassment are similar,although differences do exist between the process andthe consequences. The authors state that in offlineharassment situations the roles are more marked: oneparty perpetrates the aggression while the other suffersits consequences. Some go to the defense of the victimwhile others support the one who harasses. On theother hand, as Law’s research (2012) indicates, theseroles are not as defined in on-line interactions. Thepossibility of reacting to harassing messages receivedvia Facebook, or other social websites, by posting similarnegative comments on the profile of the harasser,allows cyberbullying to become interpersonal violenceturning it into reciprocal cyber-aggression.In recent research from the US, from a sampleconsisting of 4,400 students aged between 11 and 18,20% acknowledged having been the victim of cyberbullyingwhile 10% admitted to having been both bullyand bullied (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010).In Spain, according to selected data (Garmendia,Garitaonandia, Martínez & Casado, 2011), 16% ofminors between the ages of 9 and 16, claimed to havesuffered from bullying both offline and on-line. One ofthe disturbing facts is the ignorance of parents; 67% ofguardians of children who had received nasty or hurtfulmessages claimed that their children had not receivedsuch messages, thereby ignoring the reality experiencedby their sons and daughters. In Europe, 19%of children aged between 9 and 16 said they hadreceived such comments in the previous 12 months(Lobe, Livingstone, Ólafsson, & Vodeb, 2011).This risk, harassment between peers in the way ofon-line interactions, can have a very negative impacton the emotional development of children; depression,© ISSN: 1134-3478 • e-ISSN: 1988-3293 • Pages 65-72