iRights Initiative Launches to Empower Young People Online

New iRights framework to bring together industry and Government to better empower and protect young people online


iRights Logo
  • iRights include the ability to remove web content young people have created about themselves

  • A right to digital literacy and to know how data collected about them is used

  • Endorses technical support for children to set limits on their digital activities

  • Research finds young people are increasingly worried about their digital legacy and addiction
  • The iRights initiative aims to encourage all companies and organisations with a digital footprint to enshrine a universal standard of rights into their digital services and communications to help protect and inform young people online.

    iRights has today published a report which found that, although children and young people are often presented as ‘digital natives’, in reality they lack the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the risks of the internet or to benefit from its many opportunities.

    Speaking ahead of the report’s publication, Baroness Shields, Minister for Internet Safety and Security said: “iRights gives a unique insight into how government can join with technology companies, civil society and business to make a better digital world for young people. We are using iRights in education, business and in our own services and digital communications.”

    Baroness Beeban Kidron, iRights Founder and Crossbench Peer, added: “iRights would transform children and young people’s experience of the digital world. They are spending an increasing amount of time online yet fail to properly understand the internet’s many risks and abundant opportunities. We are therefore delighted by the UK government’s endorsement of our efforts, which will help move iRights from the theoretical to the practical.”

    Today’s iRights report, titled Enabling Children and Young People to Access the Digital World Creatively, Knowledgeably and Fearlessly, followed a year of research by the civil society group and found that children and young people:

  • Feel that online games and social networks are compulsive and dominate their time to an unhealthy extent
  • Have deep concern that websites and apps which claim to delete their data have loopholes
  • Believe that helplines and informed support should be universally available to them online
  • The report has led to a series of other announcements today. The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has announced that she is launching a task force, Growing Up Digital, dedicated to improving the online lives of young people through the iRights framework.

    This task force will build on iRights and work undertaken by Schillings, an international multidisciplinary reputation and privacy consultancy, which published its own analysis of iRights today, iRights: The Legal Framework. The Schillings report shows that existing legislation strongly supports the five iRights principles and that the UK can set a worldwide precedent in terms of protecting children and young people online.

    iRightsMajor companies have already pledged their support for iRights and plan to launch their own initiatives to further its cause. They include Sky, Barclays, the BBFC, the Southbank Centre and Freeformers, which provides digital skills training to young people for free. Earlier this month, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon signed the framework and launched a Commission to establish how to make Scotland iRights-compatible.

    iRights now has nearly 200 signatories from across government, business, technology and children’s and civil society groups. The iRights coalition is currently hosted by leading children’s charity the National Children’s Bureau.

    Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, said:
    “If children of today and tomorrow are to grow up digitally, we need to be sure that the rights to protection and empowerment that they enjoy in their lives, are embedded in the new digital world they inhabit. As the legal guardian of children’s rights and best interests in England, this is of uppermost concern to me as Children’s Commissioner. I am grateful to iRights for the groundbreaking work they have undertaken in this fast developing area. I intend to build on this work to establish a new Growing Up Digital taskforce, which will launch in the autumn.”

    Jenny Afia, Partner, Schillings, said:
    “Our research has revealed that the law of England and Wales broadly supports the five iRights principles. The challenge is that the law isn’t being applied. Our sense is that there’s a big appetite amongst commercial entities to do the right thing by children and young people, but there is uncertainty as to what this entails in practical terms. To help companies overcome this challenge, Schillings will now embark on producing a set of guidelines that will enable companies to address this issue.”

    Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister for Scotland, said:
    “We believe that every child and young person has the right to grow up in a safe environment – that principle applies to the virtual world too. That is why we’re proud to support the iRights coalition and to ensure the Scottish Government is doing its bit to keep children and young people safe online.”

    Ashok Vaswani, CEO, Personal and Corporate Banking, Barclays, said:
    “If we are to do trusted business online then we have to have to make commitments to the communities that we serve. iRights sheds light on the way in which we should consider our interactions with children and young people. We are now working to make sure we manifest all the principles in our digital space.”

    Gi Fernando, Co-founder of Freeformers and long-time iRights partner, said:
    “To be a 21st century citizen, children and young people should have the right to critically understand the digital world and be confident in managing new social norms. iRights is an important step towards achieving that.”

    Anna Feuchtwang, Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau said:
    “The internet and digital technologies are fundamental parts of children and young people’s lives, shaping the world in which they live. But digital technologies are rarely designed with their needs in mind. iRights provides an empowering framework for realising the potential of the internet for children and young people so they can enjoy a safe and vibrant digital life.”

    The full iRights report and framework can be found at www.irights.uk.

    Written by Safeguarding Essentials on July 30, 2015 12:45

    Child online safety – Why isn’t the message getting across in schools?

    A reflection on recent statistics from Ofsted on e-safety education


    E-safety Ofsted WarningI was thumbing through the TES the other day and I came across the headline ‘Online safety lessons failing to reach more than one-in-four secondary pupils, Ofsted warns’. The article reported on a presentation that Ofsted inspector David Brown had given at a summit on child Internet safety. Mr Brown had presented some research, gathered during inspections at 39 primary and 45 secondary schools.

    The information revealed that even though 95 per cent of the schools had online safety policies, students within those schools were not always aware of the existence of these policies and furthermore it found that 27 per cent of the secondary school students could not recall whether they had been taught about online safety during the last 12 months. The research also stated that 28 per cent of secondary students said that they did not have confidence in their teachers’ understanding of online safety – a fact reinforced by teachers who said that they didn’t believe that they had received sufficient training focusing on online safety.

    After reading the article I pondered about why there are significant hurdles in getting this serious message across to students. In my own experience as an ICT teacher, there appears to be wide variations in the levels of understanding of the issue and its associated facets, both within student community and more importantly within teachers.

    One of the problems I believe is that in some schools, online safety is discussed in ICT lessons, where the teacher may only tackle the techincal issues and side-step the behavioural and emotional espects. Where in other schools, e-safety is handled in PSHCE lessons or during form time by non-technical teachers who, perhaps, lean towards the ‘technophobic’ and have a fear that their lack of understanding will make them appear foolish in front of their students should they start asking them probing more complex questions. This highlights the need for a truely cross-curricular attitude to e-safety education in schools to ensure students can understand the whole picture.

    It could also be said that there is a part to play in this for parents/guardians and that is correct, however, sadly in the majority of cases the lack of understanding is also true but with the added problem that some parents appear to acquire their knowledge from emotive and misinformed articles within newspapers or on TV, where the purpose of the piece is to either sell the paper or gain viewing figures and not to offer parents properly researched and explained information.

    It is one of the main reasons that I regularly browse sites like www.e-safetysupport.com as the technological world moves along at a great pace and, unfortunately, new online threats to the well-being of young people appear equally frequently – whether it is the latest online 'fad', ‘sexting’, ‘trolling’ or cyber self-harming. However with the knowledge provided by sites such as this one, teachers and parents can keep informed about the latest online spectre and feel more confident when they are talking about these issues with young people.

    Within schools, Internet policies should be student-friendly and one of the best ways to ensure this is to involve students in their design, authoring and promotion. In David Brown’s presentation the research demonstrated that disappointingly, 76 per cent of the primary and secondary schools, within the study, said that students were not involved in the writing of the schools Internet policies. By involving the students, the policy’s importance and relevance to them is raised and they gain a certain ownership of the document.

    Finally, it is unfortunate that even in this day and age, in some school settings, the importance of child online safety can suffer from a lacklustre enthusiasm and sadly it is only when an incident occurs involving one of their students (or indeed a member of staff) that it becomes enough of a priority to be taken seriously.

    The Internet is a fantastic resource for learning and it is here to stay, but as in real-life, there are those who wish to act illegally and do evil and unpleasant things to others online; however, it is up to the responsible adults such as teachers and parents to bring to the attention of young people the seriousness of online safety but for that to happen those adults must arm themselves with high quality information and understanding.


    Ofsted E-safety Statistics





    To see the full presentation, click on the image


    Share your thoughts on e-safety education in schools using the comments section below



    Written by Steve Gresty on July 15, 2015 13:13

    Internet Safety Film Competition

    Childnet launch the 6th Childnet Film Competition in partnership with PhonepayPlus


    Childnet CompetitionChildnet have launched the 6th Childnet Film Competition to encourage young people to create a short film to educate their peers about staying safe online. Teaming up with the UK regulator, PhonepayPlus, this year’s competition will boast a whole new category and a new upper age limit of 18 years, meaning that even more schools and youth groups can get involved!

    As Becky Nancarrow, Education Projects Officer at Childnet, said "for the last 5 years our film competition has given primary and secondary schools, as well as youth organisations, from across the UK, the challenge of creating a short film about internet safety. This year secondary schools will be able to get even more creative, as they are given the opportunity to illustrate another part of their digital lives through film.”

    This introduction of a 2nd category for secondary age pupils is as a result of Childnet teaming with up with UK premium rate services regulator PhonepayPlus' PhoneBrain competition. The PhoneBrain category aims to help young people understand the costs involved in using premium rate services, like buying apps and entering text or phone competitions without getting charged more than expected.

    As Peter Morton, Head of Communications at PhonepayPlus explained “the PhoneBrain competition aims to engage and educate as many young people as possible in using their phones safely and confidently without stacking up unexpectedly high bills. Last year’s competition saw entries from schools and youth groups from across the country and we are really pleased to be working in partnership with Childnet this year to reach even more people with the competition.”

    Across all three categories Childnet are looking for creative, imaginative films which reflect a positive and inspiring message. 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, including a Canon DSLR and green screen, for their schools.

    Think your school or youth organisation has what it takes? Then here’s how to enter:

    Choose your category and follow the competition brief:


    If you would like to register a group of talented young people you know, then please send an email to film@childnet.com. The closing date for entries is Friday 12th June 2015 at 5pm



    Childnet Competition 2014Winning team from the Primary category 2014:

    “Taking part gave the children a defined goal to aim for and the ability to better understand the needs for vigilance online. In addition, they picked up skills in planning, filming and editing the final entry which are not only valuable, but things they can take forward into other projects at home and school.

    Winning the competition has been such a boost for the school and the children involved…This has turned what was easily a very rewarding experience, into something much more enriching and far-reaching.”

    Winning team from the Secondary category 2014:

    “They enjoyed the opportunity to create something focussed and demonstrate their knowledge of the topic as well as showcasing their technical skills. As a school we have encouraged students to be very conscious of their online presence and the films created this year demonstrated the understanding that the girls have developed. As for winning, the girls had convinced themselves that third place was honourable so to win was fabulous and the big cheque was taken on a tour of the London sights. The whole school is proud of the girls and we’re already encouraging the students to think of ideas for 2015.”

    Written by Childnet International on March 26, 2015 13:43


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