Blog – Latest stories tagged 'online'

Childnet launch the 7th Childnet Film Competition

With the aim of celebrating the positive things that young people are doing online, the competition showcases young people’s creativity and their understanding of online safety issues.

As Becky Nancarrow, Education Projects Officer at Childnet said, "we know that young people are powerful agents in creating a better internet and inspiring other young people to use the internet for good. The Childnet Film Competition is a great way for schools to inspire young people to take the lead in educating their peers about staying safe online whilst equipping them with the skills they need to become confident digital creators.”

This year’s theme is all about how we can all make a positive difference online by supporting young people to ‘shine online’.

Primary aged young people (7 – 11) are invited to create a 60 second film in response to the theme: 'Shine Online' - Tell us how you're using the internet positively

Secondary aged young people (11 – 18) are invited to create a 2 minute film in response to the theme: ‘Shine Online’ – How can you make a positive difference online?

For both age groups Childnet are looking for creative, imaginative films which reflect a positive and inspiring message. Young people might express their ideas through comedy, animation or music. Or how about creating an advert, campaign or documentary? The top three films in each category will be invited to a private screening at the BFI in London and the winners will be awarded film kits for their school.

To inspire young people to help others stay safe online, schools are being encouraged to share their film competition stories on social media using the hashtag #shineonline. Whether this is a message about what you’re up to, a picture from the creative process or even and a tip from the young film makers, schools can share their updates with @Childnet.

Important dates:
1. Competition closes Monday 13th June 2016
2. Finalists notified Monday 20th June 2016
3. Screening and finalist’s event at the BFI Monday 18th July 2016

To enter the Childnet Film Competition please send an email to film@childnet.com to request an information pack.

If you would like any more information, or find out more and download the schools packs visit Childnet.com

If you would like to register a group of talented young people you know, then please send an email to film@childnet.com. Don't forget, the closing date for entries is Monday 13th June 2016 at 5pm.

The Breck Foundation are proud to announce their new challenge - No Tech 4 Breck Day

In today’s world, so much of what we do online not only offers opportunities and helps us to be efficient and communicate more readily, but overuse can also cause loss of quality free time, relaxation, sound sleep and used without education and caution can become a danger.

In their efforts to raise awareness of the very real dangers our young people face online every day from online bullies and predators, the Breck Foundation hope to see family and friends together have a day off technology between 9th February (Safer Internet Day) and 17th March, which would have been Breck’s 17th birthday.

They are encouraging everyone to find ways to enjoy each other without the gadgets in our hands. Make plans the day before to meet up, go for a walk, cook a meal or bake a cake together or just play board games or playing cards. Spend time ‘being’ and just being together.

The Breck Foundation was formed to share awareness of the dangers of online predators who may bully, groom or sexually exploit our children online through lies, manipulation and control. The predator can say anything and be anyone behind a screen which can lead to a false sense of security. A predator will spend months or years befriending young people online until they are able to convince a child to do something they wouldn’t normally do.

This can happen to boy and girls, young and old, rich or poor, happy or sad, and anywhere in between. A predator will stop at nothing to get to the child they want. The Breck Foundation are striving to bring about awareness so that everyone from teachers, police, social workers, health professionals, parents and children are educated and empowered to make the right choices to stay safer online.

The Breck Foundation is raising awareness for playing safe whilst using the internet. Breck Bednar was a 14 year old boy, from Caterham, Surrey, who loved technology and on-line gaming. He was groomed via the internet and sadly murdered on February 17th 2014 by someone he met on-line. This foundation has been set up in his memory to help other young people to enjoy playing on-line but to be aware of some simple rules to stay safe. Remembering that the friends you make on-line are not like your real friends. “Play Virtual/Live Real”.​

If you would like to be involved in No Tech 4 Breck day, you can download a sponsor form here

E-safety Support launched in February 2013, shortly after Ofsted released the new requirements for e-safety in schools. Since launch we have added over 100 resources, send over 150 e-safety news bulletins and been joined by almost 11,000 members.

The most significant development since we launched has been the addition of 7 online training courses. These have been tailor made to reach the whole school community, and have been created specifically for pupils, staff, parents and governors. We are delighted to report that these courses have been issued to over 52,000 candidates - a number which is growing rapidly on daily basis.

Over the last 3 years, the online safety environment has seen many changes, both good and bad. We have seen the phenomenon of online trends making headlines for all the wrong reasons with Neknominate, Slenderman and various risky (and unfortunately sometimes fatal) challenges all playing out on social media. But there have also been positive trends too, with the ice bucket challenge for example which used the platform to raise millions of pounds for charity.

More safeguards for young people have also been made available - the big 4 media providers making changes to their parental controls to help protect children in the home and the RDI rolling-out their Friendly WiFi scheme to help protect them when in public places to name just two.

Of course, we must mention the most recent issue of young people being groomed online into extremism. This has been an incredibly challenging issue for many teachers and schools to tackle - we will continue to monitor this area particularly to ensure that we are providing appropriate resources to help support our members.

We are, of course, delighted to have so many members benefiting from the resources available at www.e-safetysupport.com, some of the comments we have received can be seen on our testimonials page - if you would like to let us know your thoughts, please email feedback@e-safetysupport.com or use the comments section below.

Over the coming months, we are looking forward to bringing you a new look to the website along with more e-safety resources. Will continue to monitor the e-safety issues to ensure we are keeping you up-to-speed with the important issues.

Finally, below is an infographic showing the E-safety Support story so far, highlighting the important developments across the site in the first 3 years - we look forward to continuing our journey with you.