There are many software choices for protecting children online, but do they really work?
Before you can understand how best to protect your child online, you need to know what threats they face. If your only metric is the media, you might be forgiven for thinking the internet is a paedophile paradise, with predatory behaviour the norm.
However, Dave Miles, director at the Family Online Safety Institute reminds us that while predation is perceived as the most challenging threat, “the reality is that cyber-bullying is probably a larger problem”.
Children used to be …

What is a social network? What are the dangers for children using such services?
In this latest article Computer Active explains all of the important terminology and current popular services among young people:
If chatter about social-networking sites and instant messaging (IM) bewilders you or leaves you cold, don’t worry. Opinion tends to be pretty equally divided as to their worth. At best, many detractors dismiss sites such as Facebook or Twitter or tools such as Aim and Windows Live Messenger as a waste of time. At worst they are perceived as …

Is it possible to spot the children who are likely to turn into criminals later in life? Richard Garside of The Guardian analyses current policies:
There is a view that it is possible to identify the criminals of tomorrow in the children of today. Such individuals share characteristics in common. Family dysfunction, poverty, housing problems and other “risk factors” are markers of potential criminality. Intervening early in the lives of those manifesting these risk factors can arrest the descent into a life of crime.
In practice, risk factor analysis is rife with …

A review to be published today, The Guardian reports, will call for more help and support for parents with special eduation needs children, the review will call for:

A new national helpline for parents to obtain information and advice.
Ofsted will focus more on SEN provision in its inspections.
Parents should be able to have clear expectations of what they can expect, and this must be uniform across the country to end the postcode lottery in provision.
New funding for the Local Government Ombudsman to take on parental complaints on SEN.
More pressure …

Last years goverment run Boys into Books campaign has yeilded positive results in literacy, listening and communication skills an evaluation by the Museums and Libraries Association shows:

around 330,000 boys aged five to eleven were involved in activities as part of the Boys into Books campaign including reading groups, storytelling sessions and library visits
over 1100 primary schools and 2600 Early Years centres have established new links with their local library for the first time, leading to a sharp increase in visits to libraries outside school hours
as part of the Book Ahead …

Should social networking sites such as Facebook be doing more to proect children? Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection thinks so:
His comments came after Bebo introduced a “Ceop report” button for users to log abuse. Clicking on the tool, which appears automatically under users’ profile pictures, opens a window inviting victims to log “violations of Bebo’s terms of service” – including bullying, hate speech and sexually explicit content.
The Ceop button was added across Bebo’s website yesterday. As well as functioning as a bullying deterrent, the …