A new survey has revealed that the public believe cybersecurity education should be the responsibility of parents and teachers.
The survey, which involved 1,300 online users across Australia and New Zealand, was conducted by Enjoy Safer Technology (ESET), a global IT firm based in Slovakia.
According to the findings, 73% think parents should educate children about cybersecurity, followed by 71% who said it should be a high school teacher’s responsibility and 54% who said it should be a primary school teacher’s job.
Just 41% said it should be the responsibility of the Federal Government.
The survey found that 42% of participants had low confidence or were ‘not confident at all’ in the education levels of today’s youth regarding cybersecurity.
In a statement, Lukas Raska, APAC COO of ESET, said cyber security education should be a mandatory part of primary and secondary school curriculums across Australia and New Zealand.
“Cyber security concerns are growing across APAC and globally, and the more education we have across all levels of society, the better equipped we can be to counter e-criminals’ efforts to access our data,” Raska said.
He added that the gap in cybersecurity education can be addressed with effective training for parents and teachers, to ensure the latest and most accurate advice is passed on to younger generations.
“Without a proper program implemented throughout all schools for both teachers and students, the teachers’ ability to deliver adequate cyber security education is not realistic.”
In terms of cybersecurity training, 38% of respondents in Australia and New Zealand said they had received none whatsoever, while just 9% of respondents said they had received formal education on cybersecurity from schools and educational institutions.
In September, nearly 40 principals attended a forum to find out how they could guard students against online risks.
Thirty-seven principals from schools across Brisbane attended the Eyes Open Social Media event on 15 September, which discussed the importance of cybersecurity in schools.
The principals heard that the most significant risk to students was the lack of security in schools, which cyber specialist, Patricia Munn, said should prompt adults to “step up and get educated” about social media.
“The adults get on social media sites, if they get on at all, because their children are using it and they ask the kids how to use it,” she told The Brisbane Times.
“It should be the other way round, if my child wants to use it, I need to get educated and teach my child how to use it as safely as possible.”