e-Safety in Schools

e-Safety and Web 2.0 report published

2008-10-03T14:39:00Z

Becta recently commissioned the University of Nottingham in conjunction with London Knowledge Lab and Manchester Metropolitan University to research Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4. The aims of this research was to help shape Becta's thinking and inform policymakers, schools and local authorities on the potential benefits of Web 2.0 technologies and how their use can be effectively and safely realised. The 5 reports can be found here . A report on " e-Safety and Web...(read more)

UK Council for Child Internet Safety launched

2008-09-29T19:09:00Z

The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) has been launched today wth the aim to help protect children from "harmful" web content, such as cyber-bullying and violent video games. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety wants to work with industry (such as Social Networking sites) to teach children about onlien risks, target harmful content and establish a code of conduct for sites featuring material uploaded by users. Gordon Brown has said the move is a "landmark" in...(read more)

New Social Networking site launched for Parents of Teenagers

2008-09-10T10:41:00Z

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Parentline Plus has launched a new social networking site aimed at parents of teenagers. It has been funded by the government and also runs a 24-hour helpline. Gotateenager is a "social networking and advice site that gives parents of teenagers an online space to support each other through the challenges and successes of bringing up teens". Valerie Outram, an area manager for Parentline Plus, said that half the calls charity received...(read more)

Gold Farming Increasing in Developing Countries

2008-09-01T09:10:00Z

Research by Manchester University shows that almost 500,000 people in developing nations are earning a wage by making virtual goods in online games (known as gold-farming )to sell to players and the industry is increasing rapidly. The industry (about 80% of which is based in China) is estimated to employ in 2008 400,000 people who earned an average of $145 (£77) per month creating a global market worth around $500m. Professor Richard Heeks, head of the development informatics group at Manchester...(read more)

Beatbullying launches new site for Young People

2008-08-19T09:11:00Z

Anti-bullying charity Beatbullying has launched a new website for young people. The revamped website includes social networking, blogging, music uploading and video features. It enables young people of all ages to share thier own videos, photos and upload/download music created by other users, as well as blog about their thoughts on bullying. The new site follows a new adult and professionals' website , which was launched earlier in 2008, and was developed after consultation with hundreds of...(read more)

UK Youth Online Unconference

2008-08-15T09:25:00Z

The UK Youth Online Unconference is a free event for anyone with an interest in how technology impacts upon, or can be used in, work with under 18s. It will be an opportunity to discuss, demonstrate and explore what the latest online developments mean for work with young people. It will take place on Saturday 27th September, 10am till 5pm in London. The event is being run on a not-for-profit basis and participation is free. The event will be based around four themes: Online safety and opportunity...(read more)

Children avoiding age restrictions on Social Networking Sites

2008-08-13T08:23:00Z

Nearly a quarter of children between the ages of 8 and 12 are dodging the age restrictions imposed by social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. A recent poll suggests that from these results, more than 750,000 children could be illicitly using the sites potentially exposing them to risky communications and situations. Facebook and Bebo set a minimum age limit of 13 for users to register online and Myspace sets the limit at 14. Most social networking sites warn users that their membership...(read more)

Kitemark for Child Safety Online

2008-08-12T08:40:00Z

A new "Kitemark for Child Safety Online has been launched with the Home Office and Ofcom to provide consumers - especially parents - reassurance that their children will not be subjected to undesirable web content." Becta have played a key role in providing the technical expertise which underpins this new kitemark. It's aimed at the home market, and any products badged under this quality assurance scheme will help parents to judge products which have been rigorously tested to a set...(read more)

Internet Service Providers sign up to tackle Online Music Piracy

2008-07-24T13:12:00Z

Six of the UK's largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs), BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse, have agreed to join with the Music industry to try and tackle the growing issue of online piracy. The proposal from the government will begin with letters being sent to users suspected of using peer to peer file sharing programmes to illegally share music etc. The warning letters will be sent to thousands of homes across the UK where illegal downloading has been detected, alerting...(read more)

Junior Safety Zones for the World Wide Web

2008-07-16T11:57:00Z

Merlin John has recently written a article, published on the FutureLabs website considering how Primary Schools can use the internet as teaching tool whilst taking into account e-Safety considerations. Merlin states how Primary Schools across the UK are "starting to try out secure, media-rich services that allow children to do everything that older students and adults are doing on sites like Flickr, YouTube and Facebook but without the concomitant risks" The article contains case-studies...(read more)

First UK Conviction for laundering proceeds of commercial distribution of child abuse images in the UK

2008-07-16T11:37:00Z

CEOP have managed to secure a conviction for the first person in UK to be arrested for money-laundering the proceeds of commercial distribution of child abuse images. Andrian Benzin, a 29 year old Moldovan national who was living in London was arrested by CEOP officers on the 25th July 2006. Benzin was providing access to child abuse images on a ‘pay-per-view’ website which had 447 subscribers from 29 different countries, including 22 people from the UK (which included a scoutmaster, a teacher and...(read more)

Are Children the only ones who need advice on staying safe?

2008-06-27T09:51:00Z

Children in Sweden are reportedly embarrassed and concerned about what their parents get up to on the Internet, according to a report from the Barnens Rätt i Samhället (Children's Rights in Society). BRIS reported a rise in complaints to 1,895 in the last year from children about their parents' behaviour. More than 100 of those children who made contact with BRIS did so because they were very worried about their parent's online behaviour. While it was less of an issue in children's...(read more)

DCSF publishes action plan to implement Byron Recommendations

2008-06-25T09:42:00Z

Yesterday, 24th June 2008, the Government published an action plan detailing how the recommendations from March 2008s Byron Review will be implemented. The report was published by Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan, Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker and Culture Minister Margaret Hodge. The action plan outlines the Government’s proposals for appointing the Executive Board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. The Board will be chaired by DCSF and Home Office Ministers and will include representatives...(read more)

Free Online Introduction to Internet Safety for Parents

2008-05-30T13:57:00Z

UK Online centres have launched a new website aimed at teaching parents online safety, myguide . You can find your nearest UK Online centre here . Currently there are no UK Online centres here in Kent, however that doesn't mean you can't register and you the material! Myguide is a free taster course to give anyone worried about internet safety an introduction to some of the potential pitfalls and the best ways to avoid them. The course includes basic information on computer security, protecting...(read more)

Ofcom publish Media Literacy Audit

2008-05-27T09:38:00Z

Ofcom have undertaken an audit into childrens "Media Literacy" The report can be found here Ofcom’s definition of media literacy, was developed after consultation with stakeholders was defined as ‘the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts’. The report considered Media Literacy both at home and at school. Some key findings: Access: Children’s bedrooms are increasingly becoming 'multi-media centres' children aged 12-15 have an average of...(read more)

Cyberbullying - not just for kids

2008-05-19T09:47:00Z

A recent news report from BBC News worldwide stated how a 49 year old woman, Lori Drew from Missouri USA, who set up a fake Myspace Profile to cyberbully a 13 year old girl who later committed suicide, is facing criminal charges. D rew has been indicted by a federal Grand Jury for Cyberbullying and faces 1 charge of conspiracy and 3 charges of accessing protected computers without authorisation to inflict emotional distress, each carrying a maximum 5-year prison term. Drew, her teenage daughter and...(read more)

Byron Review - The Next Steps

2008-05-15T14:52:00Z

An announcement by the Government (See here ): "Kevin Brennan and Vernon Coaker today announced the UK Council for Child Internet Safety will launch in September 2008, six months ahead of the recommended timescale set out by Dr Tanya Byron in her report ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’. Stakeholders, including a mixture of children’s charities and industry will today be informed about how they can join the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, which will be responsible for developing and...(read more)

UK Hector's World available for KS1

2008-05-08T09:13:00Z

Press Release from CEOP today: "Hector's World is available at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/hectorsworld Children as young as five years old are the focus of a new online safety programme being launched today, Thursday 8th May 2008, by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection ( CEOP ) Centre. OFCOM research indicates that 59% of 5-7 year olds access the internet at home and that 21% do so unsupervised. Now building on the success of the organisation's Thinkuknow education initiative, which...(read more)

Teachtoday - Making sense of technology

2008-04-28T13:30:00Z

A new teachers' website which delivers a strong lesson in e-safety has been launched: teachtoday This website has been set up to help to support the many teachers that feel the need to address e-safety issues but worry that they do not know enough about new technologies or those who feel that there is not time to devote to the topic outside the National Curriculum. It has been created to enable teachers to support pupils in using technology responsibly and safely and focuses on several major...(read more)

Your Views required - e-Safety in Kent Schools

2008-04-04T14:46:00Z

Due to the recent press attention and focus on e-Safety (See blog posts on New Home Office Proposals and The Byron Review ) I'm seeking opinions to see if readers feel that enough is being done in Kent and indeed in Kent Schools to consider these important issues? What do readers perceive is in fact taking place in Kent around this topic and could anything be put in place to enhance or improve this? Comments are welcome....(read more)

New Home Office Proposals on Internet Safety

2008-04-04T08:46:00Z

The Home Office has made today new recommendations to improve safety for children on the internet. The package of new guidelines was developed in consultation with children's charities and social networking websites. It calls for Social Networking sites to display links to organisations such as CEOP , NSPCC , Samaritans and others so abuse can be reported or users can quickly get help. It also wants internet firms and police forces to share reports of potentially illegal and suspicious behaviour...(read more)

Social Networking Sites to link to 999

2008-04-02T11:49:00Z

An article in today’s Daily Telegraph states that Social Networking sites will have to advertise the 999 emergency services number according to new government guidelines. It is hoped that this will encourage children to call the police directly to report abuse. The Telegraph states they have obtained a copy of draft guidance due to be published on Friday by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. A recent Ofcom report into Social Networking found that 27% of 8 to 11-year-olds claim to have a profile page...(read more)

The Byron Review

2008-03-27T09:56:00Z

A six month study which announces the first national strategy for child internet safety has been set out in a report for government today by Dr Tanya Byron named as "Safer Children in a Digital World" The report argues that the government and the online and games industry must do more to provide comprehensive information to parents, young people and educators, develop an updated and consistent system for classifying computer games and develop clearer codes of practice for social networking...(read more)

Todays Children are being "raised online"

2008-03-27T09:14:00Z

A recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research ( IPPR) ahead of the impending Byron review , which will be offical released later today, has uncovering some interesting figures about how much time and access today’s youth has to the internet and technology.It states that "a generation of youth is being raised online" According to their findings many young people are spending in excess of 20 hours a week using popular sites such as bebo, Myspace and youtube ”. The research was...(read more)

Cyberbullying for teachers too?

2008-03-18T10:41:00Z

An article in The Times this week discusses the ideas raised at the annual Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) conference 2008, that teachers are becoming increasingly at risk of being victims of Cyberbullying.. A recent ALT poll found that 1 in 6 teachers had been victims of Cyberbullying by either pupils or parents. The increasing number of video phones in schools has been suggested as a possibly reason in this number. The same survey found that over half of those questioned (270 members...(read more)

Living in the World of Warcraft

2008-03-18T10:02:00Z

The Swedish Media Council commissioned a report into MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) "Living in the world of Warcraft" in 2007 which was carried out by Jonas Linderoth, PhD, and Ulrika Bennerstedt, MA, of Gothenburg University. The report focused on the game World of Warcraft and 10 young people (aged 17-19) were spoken to about their experiences and involvement in the game and its impact/effects on their lives. World of Warcraft is one of the more popular MMORPGs...(read more)

I.T Girls?

2008-03-04T09:59:00Z

A recent study from Tescos Computers for Schools has shown that girls may now be ahead of boys when it comes to technology and its use in today’s society. It was an independent study completed by Tickbox research on behalf of Tesco, and the total survey sample base was 1,024 UK parents with children aged 7-16. Despite I.T. and gadgets being traditionally perceived as the territory of boys, the survey found that girls perform better on the computer, with a higher percentage of girls being able to...(read more)

Internet Safety Survey – Social Networking sites and Schools

2008-02-25T14:35:00Z

Kent County Council has been asked to circulate a survey which is aimed at schools to investigate their experiences and perceptions on social networking sites. It was originally conducted by the SWGfL in the summer and Becta has asked that all authorities and RCBs (Regional Broadband Consortia) encourage schools to take part so that we can obtain a national picture. The SWGfL report is currently with CEOP as it may be useful to integrate with the forthcoming Home Office guidelines for Social Networking...(read more)

Byron Review Competition

2008-02-19T09:29:00Z

As part of the ongoing work of the Byron Review ; looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games, Dr Tanya Byron is inviting young people to contribute to the debate. The DCSF and Dr Byron are asking young people to write half a page (approx 200 words), make a short video (no more than 2 minutes), or draw a picture giving advice to other children and their parents on how children can stay safe and have fun when surfing...(read more)

Kent highlighted as a best practice case study in Becta e-safety publication!

2008-02-12T17:24:00Z

Becta have produced a toolkit for Local Safeguarding Children Board's and LA's. The publication includes a case study detailing how Kent has developed its e-safety policy and practice. On a straight word-count, Kent gets 64 mentions, and provides clear leadership for other Local Authorites! The publication is available from Becta, or if you have a good connection (Its around 5Mb!) You can download it here . Kent can demonstrate that it has measurably improved children and young people's awareness...(read more)