English abstract
The Internet is an evolving medium that continuously presents new functionalities. Children's Internet usage is also continuously changing. This requires vigilance with regard to Internet risk behavior and safe Internet use. The present article presents a structured overview of Internet risks and summarizes approaches to foster safe Internet behavior. Based on a cross-sectional study, internet usage of year six of the young children at Sultan School in Oman has been researched. The focus is to identify the risks that the children in year six at Sultan School face. Examples of this risk include content and contact risks. The study aims to explore the role that parents play in guiding their children when they use the Internet. Based on the analysis of survey data from 88 children, trends in their (un)safe Internet usage are studied in the year 2011. The results of this study show that 32.2% of the participants in this study use the Internet three hours, and 42.2% of them use chat rooms. With regard to parents' role, the study found that 66.7% of the parents did not play a role in controlling or guiding their children when they use the Internet. Finally the study found that 66.7% of the informants are exposed to risk through the use of the Internet.
