“Digital literacy should be the fourth pillar of a child’s education alongside reading, writing and mathematics”. “No child should leave school without an adequate standard of digital literacy”. These are just two of the quotes from the recently published House of Lords report ‘Growing up with the internet’. The report acknowledges the benefits the Internet Read more about The fourth pillar of education[…]
The year 2016 marked the tenth birthday of Twitter. Following a decade of people expressing their thoughts, musings and observations in 140 characters or less you would think that we would all be a little more aware of the damage we can do to ourselves with the world’s most popular micro-blogging website. Unfortunately, this does Read more about Twitter – a career killer in 2016?[…]
Sextortion is the latest online threat which has been gaining widespread news coverage in the past couple of weeks. This comes on the back of a drive from the National Crime Agency to raise awareness of this issue which has even resulted in a number of young males committing suicide this year. The NCA: “Criminals Read more about Sextortion warnings[…]
Revenge pornography has received much coverage this week with the publication of statistics on prosecutions since the new ‘Revenge Porn’ legislation came into effect in April 2015. The crime often involves an ex-partner uploading sexual images of the victim to cause the victim humiliation or embarrassment. In the few months from the law coming into Read more about Revenge porn amongst children[…]
This week saw the conclusion of the trial and sentencing of those responsible for the tragic murder of 15-year-old-school girl Kayleigh Haywood in Leicestershire last year. As the two men responsible begin their prison sentences a number of details of the case have been revealed. One detail in particular is something that all parents and Read more about The tragic case of Kayleigh Haywood[…]
The BBC are today reporting on a study by the University of Middlesex which attempts to give an indication of the scale of inappropriate sexual material being accessed by school-aged children. Key findings of the study include: About 53% of 11- to 16-year-olds have seen explicit material online. 14% of the young people who responded Read more about Scale of exposure of children to pornography[…]
The BBC recently reported on an accusation by Labour that the government is ‘refusing to protect the smartphone generation’. The report states… Of 39 police forces in England, 18 responded to Labour’s request for information. In 2013, the 18 forces investigated 51 cases of under-16s “sending or receiving explicit messages and images on a mobile Read more about Government “refusing to protect the smartphone generation”?[…]
“I think it’s just to get attention. It’s to get the likes. Everything’s about the likes.” This is the explanation as to why teenage girls are posting sexualised pictures online in a new book, ‘American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Life of Teenagers’ by Nancy Jo Sales. The book paints a disturbing portrait of Read more about “Everything’s about the likes”[…]
To mark this year’s Safer Internet Day (9th February), the UK Safer Internet Centre released results of a survey of over 1,500 teenagers. Though sad to read, the statistics generated were unsurprising. Key findings included: One in four teenagers suffered hate incidents online last year. One in 25 said they were singled out for abuse Read more about A quarter of UK teenagers suffered online abuse last year[…]
All schools will be required to put in place strengthened measures to protect children from harm online – including cyber bullying, pornography and the risk of radicalisation. The DfE published draft proposals on this to schools for a consultation process which ended on 16th February 2016. Under these proposals, all schools will: need to have Read more about New measures to keep children safe online at school and at home[…]