Archive for the 'E-Safety' Category

CEOP urges Facebook to adopt Panic Button

Published on 13 April 2010 in E-Safety, Facebook, In the News, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The ongoing campaign for Facebook to adopt the CEOP Safety Button has been pursued further by Jim Gamble, CEOP director. This has come following the tragic death of 17 year old Ashleigh Hall who was murdered by a man she met on the social networking site. Jim Gamble met with Facebook creators in Washington to push the use of the Panic Button on every possible page.

As stated by the BBC: ‘Speaking after the four-hour meeting, Mr Gamble said Facebook was “one small step from doing the right thing” but had not agreed to his demands outright.’

It has however been recognised that they are looking to improve their position in child safety online. This will hopefully result in CEOP, Facebook and other social networking sites working together to tackle e-safety issues that give the internet a bad name.

In MFRS we have ensured that the correct e-safety provisions are in place by creating an E-Safety and an Acceptable Use Policy, as well as a Social Media Policy. There are five staff who have been trained to cascade ThinkUKnow training to all staff, particularly those who come into contact with children and young people who will then in turn be able to help, educate and advise Children and Young People about E-safety.

MFRS strongly believe that every effort must be made to safeguard children and young people when using new and emerging technologies, including social networking. Whilst we wish to make use of the potential engagement social networking enables with the public, we believe it is equally important to educate and inform on how to use the internet safely. By training the Youth Engagement staff to deliver the ThinkUKnow training, they will be able to use the presentation as part of the programmes that MFRS run such as Beacon, Prince’s Trust and EARLY. Furthermore they will be able to provide support for parents and carers and other staff.

Schools Parliament Consultation (2/2)

Published on 15 March 2010 in E-Safety, Emerging Technology, Facebook, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Last week I and two colleagues attended the second phase of the Liverpool Schools Parliament Consultation which took place in Liverpool Town Hall. The group was split into three rooms each holding thirty young people to allow the consultation to be more personal. We decided to asking the young people leading questions to generate conversation around the topics we were particularly interested in to get real responses and spark ideas. We felt that giving out a questionnaire or list of set yes or no questions would not only make them bored, but would not capture the true views and opinions of the young people.

Although we were hoping to split the group into three and each tackle a different subject we unable to do this so the three of us stood at the font and tried to keep a conversation flowing throughout the group.

Our main focus was around what online resource the young people wanted and felt would be useful, along with what makes them visit websites and the features, design and content they expect.

Out of the thirty young people in the room, none of them had ever visited the MFRS website, meaning that they were not even aware that there was a Youth section. When asked what else they knew about MFRS, apart from putting out fires, the only responses were fitting fire alarms and dealing with road and traffic accidents… and of course the usual rescuing cats out of tree’s line!

We then spoke about what websites the group use now, due to the wide age range the answers varied, most popular answers included Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Habbo Hotel, MiniClip, Wikipedia, Google and Bing. It was not surprising that the majority of their answers were social networking and free online gaming sites. Out of the thirty people only ten said they had a Facebook account, however this may be due to the age range of the group as others said they do use Habbo Hotel and Bebo, social networking sites aimed at younger children. All the CYP use MSN and some use MSN and Twitter. Interestingly, half of the group said they had covered e-safety in school but only some of them had changed their security settings after, others kept their profiles, including details and photographs, open not thinking they would be at risk. The top reason for using the internet was for chat and if they needed information the first place they would go is Wikipedia or a search engine such as Google or Bing.

Having got an idea of what resource the CYP are already using and how they spend their time on the internet we channelled in to what they believe we could do. We used A3 coloured screenshots to show them our website and the current ‘Youth’ page and also some examples of other websites aged at CYP including the BBC Bitesize and ThinkuKnow website. They liked the idea of the website being split up into age specific sections similar to the ThinkUKnow website for example Primary Schools (under 11’s), 11-15, and 16+. For the younger members of the group said that they are attracted to brighter colours and cartoons and characters. The older members said that they prefer more statistics and facts. The entire group however said that they would want interactive games linking to fire safety messages but that were fun.

It was suggested that unless there was a reason for them to visit the website they would not think to go, therefore it should be linked in with their curriculum, possibility PSHE lessons. This could cover fire safety messages and information of what the MFRS does. The most popular resources that the CYP suggested were virtual tours of Fire Stations and other areas of MFRS, detailed staff roles, careers information (not just fire-fighters), fire fighting games, statistics and case studies, live chat to staff, online application forms and information about activities open to them. They also talked about discussion boards where they could post up information or queries however when we spoke about this further they suggested that using Facebook for this would be better than trying to re-invent it. We should also make sure that pages are linked to other useful sites such as Connexions and schools and they are linked to us.

The consultation was invaluable and has given us a lot to think. It was excellent to see the CYP thinking out loud and watching how different ideas linked and led onto others. Although having a wide age range there meant it was hard to be specific about certain points it was extremely useful to see how the needs and opinions varied so much from those aged 11 to those aged 16.

Schools Parliament Consultation (1/2)

Published on 5 March 2010 in E-Safety, Emerging Technology, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Yesterday I attended the first of two consultation events with the Schools Parliament. 120 Children and Young People from Primary Schools around Liverpool came to the Town Hall to consult with myself and other organisations about health and safety.

Other delegates were from Liverpool Primary Care Trust, talking about obesity, Liverpool Safeguarding Board, talking mainly about bullying, and LifeStyles, talking about the free sports and activities for children around Liverpool. I focused my session on how MFRS can engage with young people through technology. This included giving out Fire Safety messages, allowing direct contact between us and them for queries and questions, giving out news and updates and informing CYP about the Fire and Rescue Service.

Only having 10-15 minutes I decided that the best strategy would be to ask the group a series of questions, some that everyone answers so I could get a percentage and some more specific where I would ask a selection of children their answers. I found that this worked well and despite the large group and small time frame I gained some valuable information that will help to develop our online resources and develop future initiatives.

Some of answers that stood involved all of the children having access to the internet in their houses and a shocking 83% had access in their bedrooms via various sources ranging from their televisions to wireless laptops. Even more surprisingly every single person put their hand-up when asked if they had Facebook; the maximum age these children could have been in 11 and the minimum age for Facebook is 13.

All the participants enjoy using the internet and especially playing games on the internet where they can chat to other people, when asked about which games they play popular responses were ‘Club Penguin’, ‘Habbo Hotel’ and even ‘Call of Duty’ – a war game which is rated an 18.

When asked about E-Safety a small number of the young people said they had learnt about E-Safety in school, I found this extremely surprising considering it was Safer Internet Day last month. When I enquired what they had learnt, only a couple raised their hands and were unsure about exact details.

Furthermore, in one of the other talks, one child even suggested that there should be a ‘Panic Button’ for children so that they can alert someone when they feel scared, bullied or unsure, they also suggested that there should be a way for parents to restrict what websites they have access to. One of the suggestions for a resource was a site where they could learn about E-Safety. All of these things exist and have been highly publicised by CEOP. I found it surprising that the children weren’t even aware of these resources and therefore parents were also not aware.

Their lack of knowledge about E-Safety and the resources that are already available for them together with their expansive experience on the internet; using social networking and games that open them up to the world from their bedrooms really opened my eyes to the work that still needs to be done on E-Safety.

Using these results and the information that I get from the consultation with secondary schools next week I plan to put an action plan in place to educate parents, carers, teacher and children and young people about safeguarding on the internet and the importance in doing so.

Safer Internet Day 2010

Published on 25 January 2010 in E-Safety and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service. 0 Comments

Tuesday 9th February is Safer Internet Day 2010. The main objective of Safer Internet Day is to bring together relevant public and private stakeholders, in as many countries as possible, to raise awareness about safe and responsible use of new technologies especially among children and young people.

With so many of our own colleagues working with young people on a daily basis, this is a great opportunity to promote Safer Internet Day and its wider cause, in the aim of making Merseyside a safer, stronger and healthier community.

In preparation I have sent out an online survey to all MF&RS staff to ask them what they want to mark the event, whether it be a presentation, a booklet to take away, or simply a Q&A session. The purpose of this is to avoid spending a large amount of time organising a session which only three or four people turn up to.

In being able to customise a resource, I can make sure our staff receive the exact information that they want and need. This will spread the message to a wider range of people, helping to safeguard children and young people online.

Happy New Year!

Published on 4 January 2010 in E-Safety and Social Media. 0 Comments

2010 has arrived and with it a large amount of children and young people are online!

Christmas brought presents and this year among the most popular presents were net-books, laptops, games consoles and mobile phone; all giving their owner access the world wide web.

Children as young as 5 have been given netbooks from Father Christas, allowing them to borwse the web anywhere they want at any time they want; in their bedrooms, at their friends house, in the shopping centre… the list goes on.

Although I believe that it is excellent that young people are becoming familiar and confident using technology to enhance their lives, I am worried about the lack of knowledge parents have surrounding e-safety and just how accessible the Internet is.

As we approach Safer Internet Day in Febuary I aim to find out what parents know, what they want to know and what they should know. Breaking down the knowledge barriers between adults and young people will help both sides understand why the other is so interested in what they are doing and increase safety starting from a young age.

3/4 children admit secretly visiting social networking sites without their parents knowledge

Published on 18 December 2009 in E-Safety, Facebook, In the News and Social Media. 0 Comments

According to research by Professor Tanya Byron, clinical psychologist and television presenter, three quarters of children are visiting social networking sites in secret without their parents knowledge. In fact her research shows that a massive 90% of parents believed they had banned their children from sites such as Facebook and Bebo, but unbeknown to them, their children were still using the sites. A similar percentage allowed their children to use social networking unsupervised.

Click here to read the full article from the Telegraph.

This research highlights the key issues surrounding social networking. The answer is not to ban children from using these sites, but in fact to embrace it and bridge the gap between your knowledge and theirs.

  • Set up the computer in a family room where you can always see what is on the screen.
  • Sit down with your children and set up social networking sites properly – using all the security features.
  • Familiarise yourself with it so you know exactly what is on there and how to change it.
  • Talk about it with your children so that they do not feel embarrassed or scared when they have a question or need advice.

Following simple steps like this will bridge the gap and stop children from sneaking onto sites such as Facebook and Bebo, and using them unsafely, putting themselves in danger.

Project Plan

Published on 14 December 2009 in E-Safety, Emerging Technology, Facebook, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Projects, Social Media, Topics and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Video Diary / Podcast

Programme – Huyton Prince’s Trust

Team – Richie Evered, Jade Cotter

 Giving students the facility to create video diaries / enhanced podcasts:

  • Track progress throughout the 12 week course
  • Provide evidence of activity for log book
  • Creating an online ‘e-portfolio’
  • Ability to evidence work placement activity
  • For use in the final presentation evening
  • Reflective log

Continue reading ‘Project Plan’

Internet Safety in Schools

Published on 8 December 2009 in E-Safety, In the News, Links and Publications. 0 Comments

Internet Safety is to become a compulsory part of primary education in 2011 it has emerged today.

The campaign ‘Zip it, Block it, Flag it ’ intends to encourage children to not give out personal information on the web, block unwanted messages on social networks and report any inappropriate behaviour to the appropriate bodies. The campaign will used as an online ‘Green Cross Code’ which children and parents will follow to protects themselves online.

Zip it, Block it, Flag it!

By starting the education at a young age, there will hopefully be less and less incidents as the children grow older and internet safety will become common practice.

Facebook in the news

Published on 2 December 2009 in E-Safety, Facebook, Social Media and Topics. 0 Comments

Yet again Facebook has received bad press because of the lack of knowledge users have. Today on BBC there is a story about doctors being warned about not responding to ‘flirtatious approaches’ on social networking sites. This has come about after a number of patients have found the doctors that have treated them in surgeries or hospitals on sites such as Facebook and have been able to get information on their interests, and then proposition them. This is all down to the user not knowing how accessible their information is and how to adjust privacy settings so that their details are private from the general public.

This highlights the need for e-safety to circulate around as many people as possible so there is a better awareness of such issues, not just young people but adults too. Facebook can then be used as the excellent resource it is. The bad press, such as this, gives social networking a bad name, especially for those who have never used it and will continue to be put off. It is not often that good news or success stories, such as Wiggly Wigglers (see below) in the press showing the potential that social networking holds.

Those who have a bad view of sites such as Facebook, are generally those who have never used it and are not aware of what it has to offer. By increasing the awareness of e-safety and educating more users on how to keep their profile private, hopefully there will less ‘horror’ stories and more ‘success’ stories.

Don’t Assume… Ask!

Published on 23 November 2009 in E-Safety, Emerging Technology, Facebook, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Projects, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

I have created a questionnaire to assess young people’s computer skills and internet safety knowledge.

The purpose of this is to compare the results of a group who are just finishing a Princes Trust Course to those of a group next year that would have been exposed to emerging technologies throughout the course. Another purpose of the survey was to confirm which social networking sites are most popular and how the students access the internet and e-mail.

 The questionnaire was given out to nine Princes Trust students aged 17-23. I hope that when I compare these results to the next group, a clear difference will be visible in internet skills and capabilities using technologies.

One of the questions was ‘Which Social Networking Sites Do You Use?’, if students used more than one they were able list them.

 graph 1

The findings shown below clearly show that Facebook is the most popular site and that more people do not use any at all than use MySpace, Bebo or Twitter.

 I also asked how the young people access the internet. Over half of the students had a PC at home and a third had their own laptops. The use of the internet and Facebook is increasing on mobile phones and some of the students used their game consoles for the internet.

 graph 2

 Other interesting results included; over 75% of the students used hotmail for their email and 33% of the students didn’t have access to the internet at home.

This backs up our idea to set each student up with a professional e-mail address not only as some hotmail addresses can be unsuitable but also so that those without the internet are not excluded from applying for training, information and employment online. With many companies using e-recruitment and e-mail as contact it is important that are students have the right skills and knowledge to do this.

My results also showed that many of the students lacked computer skills that a lot of young people would take for granted and are essential when applying for training or employment. By incorporating computer skills into the programme the students would leave with invaluable experience and knowledge that will help them progress to the next stage of their lives.