I attended the UK Council for Child Internet Safety 2011 Summit last Tuesday 14th June to learn about how the current UK government coalition is supporting and advocating children’s and young people rights to internet safety. Whilst there, I had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face with Katie Bacon for the first time. Katie’s consultancy Online Youth Outreach provides training and consultancy to those working with youth and social media, and I’ve followed her tweets on internet safety for some time (@katie_bacon).
I was even more pleased when she sent me through her coverage of the event, as I don’t believe in duplicating effort and Katie has said all that I wanted to anyway. She has kindly allowed me to reproduce her blog post here – many thanks.
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| Katie Bacon |
Review of UKCCIS 2011 Summit by guestblogger Katie Bacon
You may have heard of UKCCIS or possibly have not, here’s some background information to help frame the 2011 summit.
History of UKCCIS
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister at the time, commissioned Dr Tanya Byron to lead an independent review into the impact of exposing children to potentially harmful material on the Internet and in gaming environments. The concluding report ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’ included an array of comments and recommendations and was published to much acclaim in March 2008.
The UK government at the time entirely accepted the recommendations and subsequently created UKCCIS (the UK Council for Child Internet Safety) in September 2008 to implement all these recommendations. UKCCIS brings together over 160 stakeholders from across the internet safety spectrum, from all sectors including public, private and voluntary sectors, who come together to work in collaboration with government for the good of children and families; including Google, Microsoft, Bebo the NSPCC and CEOP.
The first ever internet safety strategy, ‘Click Clever Click Safe’ , was drawn up by UKCCIS and was launched by Gordon Brown (the former Prime Minister) at the first UKCCIS Summit.
Following a change in government, the new coalition administration adopted UKCCIS and continues to prioritise its work and objectives, and is co-chaired by two government ministers (Tim Loughton and James Brokenshire). Above information from INSAFE website
UKCCIS Summit 2011
Chairing the UKCCIS 2011 Summit NSPCC Director of Child Protection Consultancy and UKCCIS Summit Chair John Grounds. He shared: “This is a unique opportunity for key organisations to give children the tools and information they need to stay safe online. Child safety is everyone’s responsibility and everyone can play a part in making a difference to children’s experiences of the online environment”
Ministerial Perspective:
- Tim Loughton for Children and Families
- Ed Vaizey for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
- James Brokenshire for Crime and Security
Each of them presented and advocated the work of UKCCIS and the continued need to invest time, funds and support. They shared how the UK is leading the work in internet safety and child protection in this new era of new media. Please view the film clip of Tim Loughton MP for Children & Families (1:14 min into the film). During his speech he shared how new media is developing at phenomenal speed that even technology experts struggle to keep up to date. That is was unfair for parents to be expected to understand and know how to modify security settings for each new digital media trend.
He advocated the need for social media sites and forums to simplify their security and privacy settings. He referenced Reg Baily’s report - Letting Children Be Children: the Report of an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood which was published on 6 June 2011.
“That is why I welcome Reg Bailey’s recommendations, to make it easier for parents to block adult material on the internet, in his review into the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood. This review is a real opportunity for the IT industry to act decisively to develop effective parental controls, so that they are simple enough for the average busy parent to use.”
He also shared that Dixons Retail Plc, parent company of Currys, PC World, Dixons.co.uk and PIXmania.com, will announce their commitment to support the UK Council for Child Internet Safety ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’ campaign through in-store rolling demos, flyers, and on receipt wallets.
Presentations from:
Bill Thompson @billt Bill Thompson, an internet veteran and longstanding commentator and Technology Journalist for the Guardian and the BBC Click here to view Bill discussing privacy. He shared the power of storytelling and the writtern word. The demise of analogue and the prevalence of digital, however in his view there will be an equlibum in the future. He raised his concerns of the emotional literacy of vulnerable young people and shared the excellent research just released by Stephen Carrick Davies @StephenCarrickD – Safe guarding vulnerable young people online http://www.carrick-davies.com/research/vulnerable-young-people. (Post from Stephen and film interview next week.)
Christopher Woodlard @Ofcom, International and Regulatory Development Group, OFCOM. Christopher shared a report that aimed to gain an overview of media literacy among children and young people aged 5-15 and their parents/carers, and is based on two waves of research, conducted in spring and autumn 2010
Deidre Sanders, The SUN Agony Aunt Deidre has worked at the Sun paper for over 30 years and has received over 6 million letters. Her and team deal with over 1,000 enquires a week. She shared he concern about the impact of pornography on young people on their perceptions of intimate relationships. In her view, pornography is having a detrimental impact both on young men and woman’s perceptions of sexual expectation and creates anxiety and stress. She advocated for more research, funding and intervention on this particular issue. I agree with her viewpoint, please click here to review a previous blog: Online pornography and young people. http://www.katiebacon.co.uk/online-pornography-and-young-people/
Tweets during Deidre’s presentation
@alexbirtles Some heartbreaking letters read by Deidre Sanders of The Sun from teens who are distraught by effects/addicted to internet porn
@racheloconnell #ukccis2011 Deidre Sanders – think about developing tools designed 2 help children manage their online experiences, esp addiction to porn
@kcorish #ukccis2011 Deidre Sanders CYP addictive behaviours to pornography; evidence from correspondence, sex therapists etc
Sonia Livingstone from London School of Economics and UKCCIS Evidence Champion: Sonia shared ‘highlights’ from research which is due to be presented at the EU Kids Online Conference 22-23rd Sep’11. The Evidence Group is interested in all high quality and reliable research relevant to UKCCIS’s remit. In its first year (2010-11), it has focussed on identifying recent, UK based research regarding children’s, parents’ and offenders’ actions and experiences in relation to the internet. In coming months, it will cover evidence on technological change, safety tools and practices, and relevant research from other countries, as available.
Tweets during Sonja’s presentation:
@Katie_bacon UKCCIS_Summit UKCCIS Child internet safety research highlights from the UKCCIS evidence group http://t.co/QDrZ2IB #ukccis2011 #nfpsm
@kcorish #ukccis2011 Sonia Livingstone mentions SWGfL 360 degree safe research http://bit.ly/bOmQAC
#ukccis2011 Richard Allen from FB: one of the roles of UKCCIS is to get the escalation channels right
@UKCCIS Richard Allan of Facebook – service providers have a responsibility to provide comprehensive, service-specific safety info #ukccis2011
Additional reports on UKCCIS 2011 Summit
Internet Watch Foundation – UKCCIS 2nd Annual Summit: Industry, government and charities commit to helping children stay safe online
Learn more about UKCCIS http://www.education.gov.uk/ukccis
South West Grid for Learning – Internet Safety resources http://www.swgfl.org.uk/Staying-Safe
Online Youth Outreach
Social media is now part of the woven fabric of everyday life, particularly for young people wether it be texting, facebook, twitter or catching the latest clip on youtube. Social media offers practitioners a cost effective & powerful tool to engage with a vast & diverse audience from their desk tops. Online Youth Outreach is a specialist company focused on delivering the solutions to remove these barriers and optimize social media as a key tool in youth provision services. There are a variety of courses & solutions we can offer depending on where your organisation is in the journey to adopting social media and realising the potential. The aim of Online Youth Outreach social media training courses provide proven digital skills and techniques participants can use immediately to engage and support children’s and young people online engagement. For more information please do not hesitate to Katie Bacon at info@katiebacon.co.ukOnline Youth Outreach webpage - http://www.onlineyouthoutreach.co.uk Youtube channel - onlineyouthoutreach This Youtube has a collection of interviews and presentation relating social media and online engagement with young people.