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CEOP THINKUKNOW NEWSLETTER
*PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS
EMAIL*
Dear
Thinkuknow trainers,
We hope
that you’re enjoying some sunshine on these summer days and are looking forward
to a well earned holiday!
Just
before you pack your bucket and spade, we’d like to let you know about a few
developments in our programme and some new trends we’re seeing here at CEOP.
Thinkuknow programme
Making Thinkuknow training more accessible
To make
our resources and training more accessible we are making some important changes
to improve the way we deliver Thinkuknow training. Previously, trainers
had to attend the half-day Thinkuknow training before they could attend the full
Ambassador training. We are now removing this requirement, meaning that users
do not have to attend the half-day Thinkuknow event to attend an
Ambassador event.
You
must still attend a half day Thinkuknow course to get access to our
resources for 11-16’s. However, if you attend an Ambassadors session you will
get access to our resources for 11-16’s and the Ambassadors’ training
resources which enable you to train your colleagues.
Dates for Thinkuknow and Ambassadors courses
Here
are the dates and locations of our Thinkuknow and Ambassador training for the
next academic year. Remember, the Thinkuknow course is a basic awareness session
which takes an afternoon. The Ambassador course is a full day’s course providing
an in depth look at children online, the risks and dangers they can face and how
you and your organisation can respond to them. For more details about both
of these courses visit the Training page on the Teachers/Trainers website
–
*28/09/2011
-
Edinburgh
- Thinkuknow training
*29/09/2011
-
Edinburgh
- Ambassador training
12/10/2011
-
Belfast
- Thinkuknow training
13/10/2011
-
Belfast
- Ambassador training
16/11/2011
-
London
- Thinkuknow training
17/11/2011
-
London
- Ambassador training
18/01/2012
-
Newcastle
- Thinkuknow training
19/01/2012
-
Newcastle
- Ambassador training
22/02/2012
-
Manchester -
Thinkuknow training
23/02/2012
-
Manchester -
Ambassador training
21/03/2012
-
London
- Thinkuknow training
22/03/2012
-
London
- Ambassador training
25/04/2012
-
Cardiff
- Thinkuknow training
26/04/2012
-
Cardiff
- Ambassador training
*Please
note that this Edinburgh date has now changed from the original date published
on the website
Help
us engage with more children
Involving young people in the development of
educational materials for our Thinkuknow programme has always been a key
part of its success.
With this in mind, in 2006 we established the
CEOP Youth Advisory Panel (YAP), involving around 80 young people, aged
11–17. Over the years the YAP has helped guide us in the design of the new
Thinkuknow resources and kept us up to date with new trends and changes
in young people’s use of technologies.
At the YAP children and young people can
express their views and exchange knowledge and experience concerning their use
of new online technologies and contribute to the design of awareness raising
actions, tools and materials.
We now want to engage with even more children.
Over the next academic year we will be running a series of regional YAPs and are
inviting applications from schools and/or youth groups to
participate.
Every time we visit a region to run a training
course we want to visit a school or youth organisation. At this
school/organisation we will conduct a regional YAP in the morning with young
people from that school or youth group. This will be followed by a
Thinkuknow awareness raising course in the afternoon which would be
attended by professionals from across your region. Depending on the needs of the
school or youth organisation we could also look at running an assembly to
kickstart the day.
Where possible, we are looking for a school or
organisation interested in hosting both the YAP in the morning and
providing a venue for us to conduct a free Thinkuknow awareness-raising
course in the afternoon.
If you think that your school would like to
take part, please fill out the application form by following this link.
Got
a question?
We’ve
made a section for Frequently Asked Questions on the Teachers/Trainers website.
If you have a non-urgent question about your account, the Thinkuknow training or
our resources we hope that you will find an answer on our Thinkuknow FAQ page.
Trends and new technologies
Celebrity impersonators on social networks
You may
have heard of a trend of celebrities and politicians being impersonated through
fake twitter accounts or other social media profiles. Anecdotally, there are
also common reports of people using false video feeds on sites like Chatroulette
or Omegle to convince users that they are in a video conversation with a
celebrity.
Whilst
in some cases this behaviour takes the form of a malicious prank, CEOP has
received a number of reports of young people befriending and communicating with
people they believe are real celebrities – fake accounts for Justin Bieber are a
common example.
Those
working with children and young people who use social networks should be aware
that by accepting friend requests, or seeking to be friends with these false
profiles, young people are putting themselves at risk of inappropriate contact.
Fake accounts should be reported to the social network, and suspicious behaviour
or contact can be reported to CEOP.
Lot
of gossip
As you
may know, the Little Gossip website is back online following its closure earlier
this year.
If
you’re not familiar with the website, it is a message board where users can post
anonymous public messages about people and link these messages to a school,
college, university or organisation, thus creating a searchable archive of
gossip and rumour. Users can then vote on whether they think these rumours to be
true.
CEOP
previously received a number of emails from schools and parents concerned that
the postings on the website were highly offensive and that it encouraged
cyberbullying.
The
site received significant criticism in the press and was shut down voluntarily
by its owners in February. It is now back up and running once again with
additional measures in place to try and discourage users under 18. These include
explicitly stating that users should be over 18 and the removal of schools from
the drop down list of organisations.
Despite
the changes made to the website, there is still concern over this site’s
potential for anonymous harassment of young people. We would advise schools to
block young people from accessing the website where possible.
Any
offensive material should be reported to the website via the ‘Report’ link next
to the messages. The site’s owners state that any comments reported by email to
contact@littlegossip.com will be removed as
quickly as possible.
In
previous information received from Little Gossip, they informed CEOP that they
would remove any organisation listed on the website if it was reported to them
that there were people under 18 years old that attend i.e. any schools with
pupils under 18.
Formspring guide
CEOP
has received a number of reports of bullying taking place on other websites that
allow users to post anonymous statements.
You
might be familiar with one of the most popular, Formspring. Formspring is a website that allows
users to ask and respond to questions anonymously. To help you respond to issues
you may face with Formspring, we have attached a document with advice on
changing privacy settings, as well as how to report and remove links from
Formspring to other social networks.
You are
welcome to forward this document to any colleagues seeking advice on the
website.
Now
share where...
As
smartphones get cheaper and cheaper, more and more people have access to the
internet on their mobiles. With mobile internet comes ‘location based services’
and with location based services come opportunities but also new risks to
children’s safety online.
‘Location based services’ use the fact that your phone knows where you
are to add features to websites. Anyone who’s been lost and found themselves
with an iphone and Google maps will know how useful this can be. Increasingly,
however, social networking sites are offering services which enable you to share
your exact location with your network of friends.
With
over ten million users, Foursquare is a popular example of this but the larger
social networks are taking advantage of the new technology too. Most
significantly, Facebook’s ‘Facebook Places’ enables you to ‘check in’ at your
location and share this in your news feed.
For a
quick intro to Facebook Places have a look here.
Although we can see positive aspects of these features for adults, it is
important to remember that there may be significant risks for young people in
sharing their exact location. If they have not set their privacy settings to
private or if they’re ‘friends’ with people they don’t know, then sharing
where they are at any one time could place them at risk. We would recommend
advising children against sharing their location on social networks as we
believe that currently the benefits don’t outweigh the risks.
Facebook knows what you look like
Last
month Facebook rolled out a feature that attempts to assist users in tagging
their friends in new photos they upload. By building up information from already
tagged photos, Facebook’s systems attempt to recognise faces in newly uploaded
pictures. It then makes suggestions for users to tag people in photos where it
recognises a match.
This
feature has been automatically switched on. Whilst it aims to make photo tagging
easier, some people may be uncomfortable about their faces being recognised
automatically in other users’ photos. To disable this feature go to your
account’s privacy settings and select the ‘Customize settings’
link.
Publications & research
CEOP
Annual Review & Thematic Assessment
CEOP
published its Annual Review containing information and statistics on the work of
the Centre over the past year. This week CEOP also released its thematic
assessment on organised child sexual exploitation taking place in the UK. These
reports can also be downloaded in full from the Publications section of the CEOP
website.
VGT
Website
The
Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), which is an international alliance dedicated to
combating online child sexual abuse, has just launched its new website: www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com
The new
website provides advice and information on how to stay safe online. It has been redesigned to be more visually stimulating,
accessible and easy to use.
Munch Poke Ping!
The
Training and Development Agency (TDA) has commissioned a report on the risks
that vulnerable young people being taught in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs)
encounter online and through their mobile phones. The report offers information
and advice on social media and mobile technology for those who are working with
vulnerable young people. Download the report here.
Ofcom media literacy research
In
April this year, Ofcom released the latest findings from their large scale
research into the media literacy of children in the UK. It contains some
interesting comparisons in attitudes towards the use of media by children and
parents. The report can be downloaded from here.
Facebook new safety centre and Facebook for Educators
Guide
Facebook have created a safety and advice page with information about
security settings and reporting content on the website. They also provide
details of a new Social Reporting feature where users can choose to report to a
trusted friend or adult. A new Facebook
Educator’s Guide website offers advice for people looking to set
up groups and pages for educational purposes.
We hope
that you’ve found this helpful. As always if you have any queries then send us
an email to education@ceop.gov.uk.
Best
wishes,
The
CEOP Thinkuknow team
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This
email was classified on 11 July 2011 at 16:27:42
The above classification labels were
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