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 targeted outside school via email and chat; now social-networking sites have become the most popular route to online bullying.

via PC Pro

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 a grievous threat to society and to our and our children’s safety.

For others, however, such sites and services are harmless and a part of everyday life. Join us as we examine this online phenomenon that always seems to be hitting the headlines. We’ll put the dangers into perspective and explain how you can protect yourself and your children when using social-networking services.

Social-networking sites are websites that enable people to publish and share information about themselves. Each member has their own ‘page’ on the site, usually referred to as a ‘profile’. Instant-messaging services are convenient communication tools that enable people to type messages to each other in real time. The main reason for their popularity is that they give people a quick and easy way to keep friends and family in touch.

via Computer Active

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 false positives and false negatives, as newly published analysis points out. One study drew on US data to predict which young men would commit a homicide. False negatives were very high, as were false positives. Only one in every 10 homicide offenders was correctly identified. Nine in 10 of those identified as a significant homicide risk did not commit a homicide. With our current state of knowledge, risk factor analysis is a very poor predictive guide.

via The Guardian

• 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 on schools to take SEN into consideration in school admissions.

via The Guardian

• 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 programme, children aged three to five took part in over 4500 storytelling session, 5400 nursery rhyme time sessions and 1600 book talks
• positive improvements in literacy, listening and communication skills were made linked to the Boys into Books and Book Ahead programmes.

via DCSF

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 tool can be used to report inappropriate behaviour toward a child directly to specially trained Ceop officers.

Facebook and MySpace are yet to install the Ceop tool, and Gamble criticised such sites for not taking up the free service.

via The Guardian