More Misleading Studies About Children And The Internet

from the bias-bias-bias dept

A group in the UK called NCH can't seem to put out a reasonable, unbiased study to save their lives. This is the charity group that is spending so much time worrying about children that they can't be bothered with coming up with unbiased studies. Everything leans so far in one direction, it's almost silly. First they blamed the internet for child porn as if it wouldn't exist otherwise, followed by a survey using leading questions to make it look as though parents were afraid 3G wireless was dangerous to their kids. To top that they put out a fear-mongering report about 11 year olds gambling online, when all they had done was coax a single 16-year-old to sign up for an online gambling site. Their latest is along the same lines. They start with the assumption that "the internet is bad for children" and then absolutely freak out when many parents don't seem to agree with them. Rather than think that, perhaps, many parents actually understand and appreciate the risks of the internet -- knowing that a properly monitored and trained kid can handle the internet -- NCH immediately says parents need to be educated. In fact, the study shows that many who aren't worried say so because they believe their child has been adequately taught about the risks. Whether or not that's true is an open question. However, this NCH study doesn't go down that road, preferring to simply freak out that some parents might dare to trust their kids on the internet.