e-Safety in Schools

The "Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures" is a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It has been carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley.

The team of researchers interviewed over 800 young people and conducted over 5000 hours of online observations as part of one of the most extensive studies into youth media use in the USA. The aim of the Digital Youth Project was to provide an "ethnographical view of how children use social media to socialise, learn and relax".

The researchers explain why young people find these activities compelling and important; the digital world is creating new opportunities for young people to come to grips with social norms, explore their interests, develop key technical skills, and experiment with self-expression. These activities have captured young people's attention because they provide ways to extend their social worlds, self-directed learning, and their independence. Researchers found that social networking, video-sharing sites, online gaming; gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now key fixtures of today's youth culture. It shows that today's youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression

Today's young people are "always on," they can be in constant contact with friends through ways such as instant messaging, mobile phones, social networking sites . They are developing key skills as they are creating and navigating through new forms of expression and rules for social behaviour. By exploring these new interests, and by "messing around" with media, they are able to gain various forms of technical and media literacy. Through this young people are gaining media skills, such as how to create a video or game, or customize their MySpace page. They then share their ‘creations' and can receive feedback from others online. The digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning due to its capacity, immediacy and breadth of information.

"They are learning the technological skills and literacy needed for the contemporary world," said the report's author, Dr Mimi Ito.  "They are learning how to communicate online, craft a public identity, create a home page, post links. All these things were regarded as sophisticated 10 years ago but young people today take them for granted"

The report argues against the stereotypical view held by many parents and teachers that internet activity is a waste of time. Contrary to some typical adult perceptions, while hanging out online, young people are picking up basic social and technical skills which they need to fully participate in society. Creating barriers for young people's ability to participate deprives them, of access to these forms of learning - Adults should be facilitating young people's engagement with digital media. "While most parents know very little about what their kids are doing online, they are struggling to give real guidance and help. At the more social 'hanging out' layer, young people don't want their parents or teachers on their MySpace or Facebook page. But in the interest-driven side, there is a more productive role for parents and teachers to play that will help them connect with kids and their lives" says Dr Ito

The researchers also discovered a "digital divide" between those young people who have access to the web and those who do not. "The quality of access is what matters for some kids who have to just rely on the library and school to go online. It is often limited, has blocks put on access to certain sites and is only available when these institutions are open" said Dr Ito.

The MacArthur Foundation's education director, Connie Yowell, concluded that the work creates a new way to look at how young people are being taught. "Learning today is becoming increasingly peer-based and networked, and this is important to consider as we begin to re-imagine education in the 21st century"   

Should the suggestions from this report be taken into consideration and should we be changing how we use technology both within the classroom and at home? If such valuable skills are being acquired by today's young people, should we be harnessing this enthusiasm and using it positively?  

However to truly embrace this idea it would mean removing blocks that restrict young peoples access to such sites and that may well be a risk that some would not be willing to take as yet. Are there alternatives to this idea? Is there a "middle ground" where we can feel reassured that young people are safe online and learning and where they can feel independent and supported?

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 2.0" has now been published. This report is focused on e-safety issues relevant to the use of Web 2.0 in education.

The main issue in considering the use of Web 2.0 in School is how to support children to engage in productive and creative social learning whilst also protecting them from the risks. Most learners questioned in the survey were aware of internet dangers, although many demonstrated poor practice such as around password security.

Key pointa:

• E-safety concerns can be a barrier to the adoption of Web 2.0 activity
• Schools have a clear role in educating children for safe and responsible engagement with Web 2.0 and the internet in general. As most learners have access to the internet outside of school, this education is important even if Web 2.0 sites are blocked on the school network.
• Despite a desire from some teachers to explore its benefits for creativity and social learning, they are often constrained by real or perceived limitations set by local authorities and schools
• In an increasingly risk-averse society, where schools and local authorities are vulnerable to legal action, there is a strong incentive to avoid risk to children from internet predators and abusers. This concern was often focused on avoiding the most extreme, but rare cases.
• Parents have concerns about e-safety, but are generally positive about the use of technology to support learning.

The majority of the experts surveyed advocated an ‘empower and manage' approach, in which schools allow children access to public Web 2.0 sites in a supported and structure way. Children should be educated and helped in school to use Web 2.0 activities for responsible and creative learning. Children's web activity should be monitored and action taken against any using threatening behavior or unsafe practices online.

However is this practical in schools? Are any Schools in Kent (or otherwise) actively engaging in Web 2.0 in the classroom?  Should we be moving away from blocking and filtering young peoples access and enabling them develop safe online behaviours and attitudes towards being a responsible online citizen?

 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 child protection. He stated

"The challenge for us is to make sure young people can use the internet safely and do so with the minimum of restrictions but the maximum of opportunities...but just as we would not allow them to go out unsupervised in playgrounds or in youth clubs or in swimming pools, so we must put in place the measures we need to keep our children safe online"

The council will report to the prime minister, and will have a membership of more than 100 public and private organisations, including technology and industy, such as Microsoft and Google, Facebook and mobile phone companies. The Council will be the largest ever coalition of internet safety experts, bringing together some of the biggest names in industry, children’s charities, law enforcement, Government as well as children, young people and parents. A full list of current members can be found here.

They will be working together to create a child internet safety strategy to be published next year.

The strategy will:

• Establish a public awareness safety campaign
• Establish measures to protect children and young people, such as taking down illegal internet sites and provide specific measures to support vulnerable children and young people, such as taking down illegal internet sites that promote harmful behaviour
• Promote responsible advertising to children online
• Create a "one-stop" shop for parents, providing information for them to keep themselves and their children safe online
• Establish voluntary codes of practice, with an an examination of how websites handle videos or messages posted by users.

 The UKCCIS follows recommendations as made in the Byron Review

DCSF Press Notice

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 by the charity were from parents of teenagers who felt that they had nowhere else to go for help. "After your child turns 13, you are pretty much on your own. Parents start to think they are the only ones going through it and the problems seem a lot bigger as a result".

The website covers problems from the lighthearted and funny to the serious and important. As well as a forum, which enables parents to chat anonymously about situations, the site will have 'e-learning' modules to help with problems such as drug or alcohol abuse. They can view acted-out storylines or comics covering scenarios such as teenagers staying out too late or getting drunk to get ideas on ways to communicating with their children. The site provides parents with an opportunity to create their own blog if they wish, about themselves and their family and share their own experiences. The site has sections which cover Sex and relationships, Drugs and alcohol, setting boundaries and Bullying (including Cyberbullying) cover Bullying (including Cyberbullying) and also has a list of useful sites for advice on internet safety with teenagers.

The website also has a "jargon buster" so parents can translate slang words their child uses, to help them to understand what their teenagers are talking about! Users are also able to add and edit new phrases.

How many do you know?

Rents  = Parents, eg, "I have to go on holiday with my rents"

Buff  = Attractive, eg, "He is buff"

Bedrin =  Mates/friend eg "He's my bedrin"

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 University who wrote the report said that very accurate figures for the size of the gold farming sector were hard to estimate and that gold farming has become a significant economic sector in many developing countries.

"I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry. In a way that is still true. It's just that instead of a few dozen cottages, there turn out to be tens of thousands."

In many online games virtual cash is hard to gain and many people turn to suppliers such as gold farmers to obtain money to outfit their avatars/characters with better equipment, weapons etc. Some gold-farming operations also offer the service of "power levelling" in which a worker assumes control of a player's character and turn it into a high-powered (or "levelled") character far quicker than the original owner could manage themselves due to time constraints or knowledge.

In most online games the activities associated with gold farming - gathering in-game cash to items to sell, buying game gold or sharing accounts - are a violation of the terms and anyone caught engaging in these activities is likely to be banned from the game and have their account shut down.

For more information read the BBC report here

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 young people. The site includes information and tips on how young people can keep safe when using the site itself and the internet etc in general.

Sarah Dyer, director of new media from Beatbullying, said: "It is absolutely crucial to engage with young people using the sorts of web technology they like. Our new site enables young users to communicate, interact and support each other online...We know how hard it can be to get young people interested and involved in anti-bullying messages and activities, but by making our website appealing and interactive, we can give young people an opportunity to explore, discuss and tackle this important issue by themselves."

The Beatbullying site is also launching a scheme in Secondary Schools called "Cybermentors", they are aiming to create groups of young people in every Secondary School who are trained to help and support their peers in an online virtual community, as well as on mobiles and other devices. By 2011, all 3000 secondary schools in the UK will hopefully be fully running the programme, which means a minimum of 150,000 schools-based mentors and a further 20,000 further and higher education students will be working to keep cyberspace a safer place. This network of young mentors will be dealing with incidents of bullying off line and online and working alongside Beatbullying, whether incidents are at school, out in the community, on social networking sites, messaging services, mobile phones, virtual communities or any other online environment.

Beatbullying also has it's own channel on youtube which includes videos and links from Beatbullying as well as other agencies/users videos and useful sites for Primary and Secondary pupils.

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 - keeping young people safe online, and balancing safety with opportunity.

Youth participation online - getting young people involved in decision making through online tools and environments.

Promoting services and messages to young people - online marketing and communication with young people.

Projects: youth work 2.0 - looking at projects and approaches to work with young people that make use of online technologies. 

For more information and registration details are available here

The poll of 1,000 UK children, aged 8 to 15 as well as 1,030 UK parents was commissioned by Garlik, which also said that parents are responding by covertley logging on to their children's social networking sites. One in four parents (25%) admits to secretly logging on to their child's social networking page, while 72% try to protect their children by monitoring contacts they make online. It also found that 26% of parents have set up their own social networking page to monitor their children's online activities.

The poll also found that the children surveyed spend an average of 1 hour a day on social networking sites. About a quarter of 8 to 15-year-olds admitted having strangers as friends on their social networking page. One in five surveyed said they have met up with strangers they have only ever encountered online. Two-thirds said they posted personal information on their pages, including their school and their mobile phone number.

The research follows the Byron Report in March, which warned that ignorance among adults about technology was leaving children vulnerable to online abuse. The Byron Report said: "Parents either underestimate or do not realise how often children and young people come across potentially harmful and inappropriate material on the internet and are often unsure about what they would do about it." 

A recent Ofcom report into Social Networking suggested that 27% of 8 to 11 year olds claim to have profile page on Social Networking sites. Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

The poll of parents found 58% said they had become more diligent than a year ago at monitoring their children's use of social networking sites, and 89% said they had spoken to their children about the dangers involved.

 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."

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 them to the fact they are being monitored. It may be the first time that parents or families know that they or their children are breaking the law. Hard-core users could be subject to measures such as slower connections, traffic management, filtering or marking legitimate content downloaded to identify them. 

The ISPs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding drawn up by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR). It covers consumers who both upload and download music. Previously the BPI has called for a "three-strikes" system which would remove internet connections for persistent pirates if three warnings went ignored. However, many ISP providers have resisted this and have said it is not their job to act as the law.  Currently in France, users are disconnected for a year after a third offence. The Government has asked Ofcom to lead negotiations between ISPs and the film/music industries on how to sanction persistent and blatant offenders, if there is no agreement, legislation will be introduced.  

 Illegal downloaders can be detected by an enforcement team set up by the BPI, the music trade body. Its monitors log on to websites where music is shared, such as LimeWire, Bearshare and BitTorrent, and note the IP addresses users. This identifies a unique internet connection, but not the subscriber's name and address. This information is then passed on to the relevant internet provider, which links the information to an address and sends a warning letter. The BPI and copyright holders are not given culprits' names, which means that relatively small offenders will not immediately face the risk of civil penalties.  

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI said: "All of the major ISPs in the UK now recognise they have a responsibility to deal with illegal file-sharers on their networks. The focus is on people sharing files illegally; there is not an acceptable level of file-sharing. Musicians need to be paid like everyone else. File-sharing (of copyright tracks without permission) is not anonymous, it is not secret, it is against the law." 

About 6.5 million Britons are thought to have downloaded music illegally last year. It has been estimated that illegal downloads will cost the music industry alone £1 billion over the next five years. Breach of copyright, by copying music or film via the internet, is a civil offence. All the cases so far in the UK have been settled before court, with people paying an average of £2,000 to reach agreement. An survey of music ownership showed that MP3 players owned by teenagers and students contained on average 842 illegally copied songs.

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 from Primary schools using Web 2.0 technology such as Blogs, Social Networking etc to enhance learning in the classroom.

Are Primary schools in Kent following suit? We welcome any ideas and suggestions for sites you use in your classroom which you might consider to be a "Junior Safety Zone".

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 two registered sex offenders). Users were able to send a monthly subscription charge of $89 per month into Benzin’s account, which enttitled them to unlimited access to 633 still and moving images of children suffering sex abuse.These sites originated in Russia and are now either blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation or have been removed.

Benzin is the first person to be convicted of laundering proceeds of the commercial distribution of child abuse images in the UK and has been sentenced to four years imprisonment. Benzin was convicted in his absence and will now be the subject of an international arrest warrant and ensuing extradition processes. Following his arrest, an order was issued against his various accounts and approximately £53,000 has now been frozen subject to a confistication hearing.

 Jim Warnock, Head of Operations at CEOP said:

"Benzin’s conviction sends out a strong message to those seeking to profit from exploiting children. He enabled hundreds of people to view images of children with no regard for the horrific abuse which they suffered, seeking only to line his own pockets.This was a complex investigation by the Financial Investigation Team and colleagues from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) who worked with law enforcement partners through the Virtual Global Taskforce and countries throughout the world to bring Benzin to account.The CEOP Centre is grateful to the IWF, the Metropolitan Police Service and the banking industry for their support and assistance in this investigation"

Benzin is described as 5ft 8 inches tall with short, dark hair and a slim build. Any information on his whereabouts should be reported to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Read the full report from CEOP here

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 lives than other concerns such as bullying, love and relationships etc the charity said that the problem is raising concerns in signifacnt numbers.

One 13-year-old girl stated that her mum was so engrossed in online gaming, specifically the game World of Warcraft, that she rarely spent any time with her:

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 from industry, law enforcement other relevant agencies. It will be responsible for driving forward the Council’s agenda and meeting recommendations from the Byron Review.

The plan sets out actions and milestones which include:
• how the new UK Council for Child Internet Safety will be set up
• the development of a self regulatory approach by industry which will make the internet safer for children
• plans to raise awareness of e-safety issues among children, young people, parents and other adults through a public information and awareness campaign which will begin in summer 2008 as part of a £9m investment by Government in communications to the public about child safety;
• the role of schools and other services for children and families that can help equip and empower children and their parents to stay safe online.
• reforming the classification system for video games, including plans to launch a consultation to consider all necessary evidence around current and future video games classification
• how Government will work with industry to improve information and support to parents on video games

Full article from DCSF and press release

Myguide is simple and intuitive to use - it doesn't matter if you've never even touched a computer before because with myguide you can start from the beginning and most basic steps - set up and email account, search for information and even learn how to use a keyboard and mouse. Each Module can be narrated and can be repeated if necessary.

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 six media devices in their bedrooms and children aged 8-11 have an average of four.

Around two-thirds of children tend to watch television, listen to the radio and use the internet in a room without an adult present. Solo users account for 16% of all children aged 8-15 watching television and 14% of all children aged 8-15 using the internet.

Understanding:

Children’s trust in television programmes differs by type of programme (43% of 8-11s and 47% of 12-15s). There are higher levels of trust for news and nature programmes (over 80% for all 8-15s) than for reality television programmes (under 50% for all 8-15s).

Children claim to trust online content (59% of 8-11s and 61% of 12-15s). Howeverless than one in ten children strongly agree that they believe most of what they see on the internet; this suggests that at some level children are evaluating the content they see online.

Nearly one in ten parents with children using more than one of the platforms have no rules for any of their child’s media use, just under a third of parents use a PIN or password control to restrict their child’s television viewing. More than half of all households with internet access have no blocking software or other controls over online access; households with 8-11 year olds is 50% and those with 12-15 year olds is 43%.

Create:

Social networking sites have significantly increased children’s desire and ability to create content online and over half of 12 – 15s who have the internet at home state that they have a social networking profile.

Cyber-bullying is illegal in America in approximately 10 states, and others are now considering extending their laws to address this issue due to this incident.

 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 leading a Child Internet Safety Strategy and advising Government on e-safety.

On 27th March the Government accepted all of Dr Byron’s recommendations in full and today the Government is committing to a timescale outlining the next steps which are:

• Inviting stakeholders to join the Council – 14 May
• Cross Department Action Plan - end of June 2008
• Launch of the UK Council on Child Internet Safety – September 2008
• First Child Internet Safety Summit hosted by the Prime Minister - spring 2009.

Kevin Brennan Minister for Children and young people said:

“All children deserve to take advantage of opportunities new technologies bring but parents have told us that they want support from the Government to help make sure these opportunities are beneficial to their children’s development without causing harm.We are inviting experts within industry and children’s charities to come forward and provide their expertise and advice by joining the UK Council on Child Internet Safety. By developing an e-safety strategy together, we can help children to learn and play safe online whilst at the same time supporting parents to manage new pressures they face in a modern technological world. These next steps show our commitment to acting on Dr Byron’s recommendations with the same pace and strength that they were set out. By engaging across Government and industry we will provide a robust and coherent strategy within the outlined timeframe.”

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said:

“The Home Secretary’s Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet has made fantastic progress in bringing together law enforcement agencies, children’s groups and the internet industry to ensure that the web is as safe as possible. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety will build on this progress and the recommendations made by Dr Tanya Bryon. The internet is a great tool which offers many opportunities and it’s up to all of us to work together to make sure young people get the most out of it and stay safe online.”

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge said:
“In a few short years the internet has become a huge part of our cultural lives, opening up a world of opportunity for young people to access culture, increase their knowledge or simply be entertained. The freedom the internet brings must be balanced by appropriate safeguards, and this key recommendation from Dr Byron's landmark report will help children and parents safely enjoy the wealth of benefits that the internet can offer.”

Do you think the Government's plan is sufficent? What do you think the Council should focus on with regards to internet and e-Safety?

Please post any views you have here!

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 has already reached over 1.7 million children and young people between the ages of 8-16 years, the UK's Centre for tackling the sexual abuse of children is now reaching out to parents of much younger children with vital 'safety first' advice.

Hector's WorldTM comprises five state-of-the-art, animated episodes. It takes children on a journey with Hector and his friends as they explore issues such as personal information, trustworthiness, making positive choices online and how to be open with a trusted adult when they use the internet.

The animation has been adapted for a young UK audience following successful running of the programme in New Zealand and is backed up by a series of free resources available to parents and teachers via the dedicated CEOP education website - thinkuknow.co.uk. All materials have been developed in consultation with Becta and with teachers.

 Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the CEOP Centre and holds the ACPO lead for child protection in the UK made the following statement

"We know that children are now using the internet at an increasingly young age. Recent research, coupled with feedback from our own youth panel and our work with parents, show that children are exploring the online world from as young as five years old. Teachers have asked us for this material because it is never too early to start giving children 'safety first' messages: in the same way that we teach small children to cross the road safely, there is a need to ensure that young children learn good habits for a future life online. If we give them early lessons in a way that is engaging, relevant and fun, we can help to safeguard young children online not only now but well into the future. We are delighted that working in partnership with New Zealand’s internet safety group, NetSafe, has enabled us to bring the inspirational and engaging characters from Hector’s WorldTM to UK children. We hope that every primary school in the UK will open its doors to Hector’s World for the benefit of all 5-7 year old students.”

Liz Butterfield is Managing Director of Hectors WorldTM – a charitable subsidiary of NetSafe concured by stating:

“Learning how to protect your personal information online is a fundamental skill for children today, especially considering the downward trend in the age children first access the internet.  Hectors World offers the ‘building blocks’ of the skills and values children will need online”.

Niel McLean, Executive Director of Institutional Workforce and Development at Becta said:

“We face a careful balancing act when it comes to young people online – no matter what their age.  We should definitely encourage their enthusiasm to embrace the opportunities the internet offers but we must also ensure that they explore and develop their skills in a safe way.  CEOP’s Hector’s World programme is a welcome addition to the support and guidance surrounding e-safety that is currently available to parents, carers and teachers.  It’s vital that the work to educate children about the benefits of technology continues with innovative and engaging schemes such as this."

The resources include lesson plans for teachers, Songsheets, Colouring pages, Posters, Puzzles and a downloadable "Hector's World Safety Button" that can be installed on computers for children to click on that covers the screen whilst the ask an adult for help if they experience something on the internet that makes them feel scared or worried.  To access lesson plans and resources register on the Think U Know Teachers area.

It has been created to enable teachers to support pupils in using technology responsibly and safely and focuses on several major issues that face today’s young people: Cyberbullying, searching the internet, well-being and health and privacy and personal safety. It is organised into age brackets for ease of use and is aimed at those teaching pupils aged 4-10 and 11+.

Fourteen leading companies involved within the industry, from mobile operators and social networking companies to internet and mobile content providers, worked closely with European Schoolnet to create the materials and consult with teachers during the site development. The participating companies currently are AOL, BEBO, Buongiorno, Deutsche Telekom /T-Mobile, Facebook, Google, GSMA Europe, Microsoft, MySpace, Orange, 02/Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Vodafone and Yahoo! Europe.

 See you there

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.

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 to co-ordinate approaches.

The Home Office wants to make it more difficult for people registered as over 18 to search for and contact users who are under 18. Sites are also being urged to set the default privacy settings of under-18s to private to prevent strangers from accessing personal details on their profile pages. 

An important part of the guidelines is working to ensure children do not share too much personal information by educating them along with their parents, carers, teachers and those working with children. Parents will also be issued with an eight-point guide on how to ensure their children use sites safely. There are also plans for a kitemarking scheme for parental filtering software. Parents are being encouraged to talk to their children about the potential dangers of the internet and how on-line flirting or posting too much personal information could put them at risk. 

Perhaps the most controversial idea in the new recommendations from the Home Office is plans for all registered sex offenders to supply the Police with their e-mail address. These details would then be shared with Social Networking sites to ban access to registered offenders. Offenders who do not comply or supply false email addresses would face up to 5 years in jail. This would be applied retrospectively for the estimated 30,000 registered offenders. The mirrors the scheme currently operating in the US which aims to prevent convicted offenders accessing the more popular sites such as Myspace. However this move is being argued as being difficult to enforce as a new email account can be created in only a few minutes. A Home Office spokesman has said that failure to declare any new email accounts would be considered a criminal offence, but the police would ultimately rely on members of the public to tell them of unlawful actions.

This new guidance comes after the recent Ofcom investigation and Byron Review.  Ofcom interviewed 5,000 adults and 3,000 children and found nearly 47% of children aged between 8 and 17 had a profile on social networking sites. The Byron review found 41% of the children surveyed had their profile set so anyone, not just friends, could view it and that a third of those aged between 9 and 19 who used the internet weekly had received sexual comments via e-mail, instant message, chat or text message.

Opinions on these "recommendations" are welcome......

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 on a social networking website, despite age restrictions aimed at preventing pre-teens from using them.Ofcom also found that although 65% of parents say they have set rules for their children on internet use, only 53% of children were aware of them. 41% of children and young people who use social networking sites leave their profiles on the default "open" setting.

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 sites.

The Byron Report proposes:

• A UK wide strategy to develop and deliver child internet safety across the country and support parents and educators in teaching children and supporting them to manage the risks and dangers of the digital world. This should be supported and implelmented in Schools by Government, Ofsted, Becta and the TDA.
• A national UK Council for Child Internet Safety to implement the strategy, with a fixed timetable for industry experts; a parents' panel and child development experts to implement recommendations.
•  A standard benchmark for the video and online games; clearer/standard classification, improved parental controls and guidance on the advertisement of games.
• The creation of a website for parents to find out more information about online safety and how to implement control mechanisms such as filtering, pin codes and locks.
• New codes of practice to regulate social networking sites, Bebo, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc including clear guidelines and standards on privacy and harmful content, and for them to be reviewed by an independent body to ensure it’s being enforced.
• A new law based on a 2006 Law Commission recommendation making it unlawful to assist suicide on the internet.
• A comprehensive public information and awareness campaign on child internet safety to educate parents, young people, teachers etc to ensure they can get the most from technology without being overexposed to the risks and dangers

The IPPR report recommends an increased involvement and responsibility on internet content by Ofcom, enforced if necessary by the government to protect young people from harmful internet content. It also recommends that popular sites should develop guidelines and limits for young people (also to be enforced by Ofcom) and should also commit to becoming members of the Internet Watch Foundation. The IPPR report will also propose that the DCFS should be given an overall control for “media literacy” and support parents in developing awareness, competency and key skills to help their children use the internet safely and manage risks accordingly.