Safeguarding young people in the digital world

So up to this point I have not really found much time for this blog. Nor have I found a use for it. However I DO have something I would like to share with you all, something I am very passionate about... safeguarding our young people in today’s digital world!

The last thing I am wanting to do is teach my granny how to suck eggs. However this is an area I have to consider from a professional angle for work and have experienced on a personal basis. It is something that is very important, especially in the ever changing, fast paced (digital) world we live in and I simply want to share my experiences and thoughts on the subject with you all.

My experience. OK, so most of you who know me are aware that I manage the Breeze website for Leeds City Council, a site for young people in Leeds to help them find out what their city has to offer them. I also have some younger (as well as an older) siblings (12 and 14 yrs old) and a stepson (12 yrs old) and they are VERY web and social media savvy.

About a year ago I went to a conference organised by Education Leeds on this very subject. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know but it opened my eyes a bit more than they already are and made me sit up and think. We had some outstanding speakers. My highlights were (forgive me because I can't remember all their names) a woman from CEOP who highlighted how easily it was for people to access personal information of young people through their social media sites if they were not educated as to how to protect themselves, the other was around cyber bullying from Childnet and finally was Ed Gibson, Microsoft’s chief of security.

All three made brilliant cases about their specific areas. They highlighted dangers that were so frightening it made me uncomfortable. I actually welled-up watching the cyber-bullying video re-enactments.

However alarming they were, none of them hinted at stopping our young people using these mediums. In fact quite the opposite. They were encouraging for young people to be on social networks, to blog, to set up their own websites, to interactive with the digital world as much as possible. Their message was basically that it was up to us to educate young people in how to use these forums. To highlight the dangers whilst not scaring them off. It is an exciting and empowering world, we cannot expect our young people not to use it. If they want to use social media sites etc they will find a way, barriers will not stop this and this is also when the problem starts and they will become at risk. Surely it is much better to be honest and open about these issues and work through how to use the web safely as opposed to put restrictions on?

Let me talk about my siblings and stepson and relate my professional experience to a personal one. All three use various sources of social media, in fact I think they are all pretty much addicted. My 12 year old sister is a keen user of MSN and Live Space where she likes to chat with her friends. My 14 year old brother and 12 year old stepson are Facebook addicts. None live with me but whenever they visit they are straight on my laptop (if I haven't beaten them to it) and are happy surfing away to see what their friends are up to, any comments left on their profile etc.

My brother has 509 fb 'friends'! Now I know he doesn't actually know 509 people. Some are actual friends, some are people he has met on holiday and some are people he has never met face to face. Some are friends of friends, pretty girls he has liked the look of and befriended through this social media world. He lives in London and therefore fb is the perfect way for me to keep in touch with him and see what is going on in his world. His mum and dad were both friends with him on fb until recently when he decided it was getting too personal and his dad was becoming too embarrassing. I am allowed to remain his 'friend' as long as I don't tell mum what he is up to (obviously there are limits to this). My point is he is now alone in a world, without parental supervision, where he is making friends with strangers (be them pretty girls or not) where both him and his friends think it is hilarious to make crass and crude comments on each others profiles.

Why does this not bother me? This doesn't bother me because he knows how to be safe. We (myself and his parents) have educated him about what it is safe to do and what it isn't safe to do. He knows his boundaries; he knows not to give away personal information, not to meet up with anyone he chats to online. Some people may think we are being naive about this, that there should be more supervision over his facebook account, that he shouldn't be allowed to be friends with people he only has a tenuous link to. Maybe they are right but we also respect his need for his own personal space, somewhere he can interact with his friends whilst knowing how to be safe and enjoy himself.

A quick one with regards to my 12 year old stepson. He is still at a place where it is OK for his Dad to be his facebook friend (give it another year and that will be out the window). However doing so highlighted the fact that a few months back he received an invitation from a friend to join a group called 'We hate (name of girl from his school)'. As you can imagine his dad was horrified and upset that his son had engaged in cyber-bullying. He immediately contacted him at his mothers and had some strong words to say to him. It was apparent that my stepson had no idea of the implications of how serious the matter was, he was following the crowd and joined because a friend had invited him. It even turned out that he didn't really know this girl at all and it meant nothing to him. However that just demonstrates how easily it is for children to be swept up in something that can be so hurtful to another. Can you imagine now as an adult how it would feel if 80 odd people joined a group offering their support about how they hated you and posted wall comments about you? Anyway my stepson was very quickly educated on cyber-bullying and how hurtful it was, he left the group immediately and the matter was brought up in the school where it was addressed.

I think my whole point to this blog is that we all have to take some responsibility in trying to educate our young people how to protect themselves and others in the digital world whilst encouraging them how to use it and not putting up barriers for them to find a crafty way around it. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a librarian or run a website yourself we must make sure we go to every length to ensure the safeguarding of young people.

Finally for anyone who wants some really good resources’ on this subject here you go:

The Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre
Think U Know- fantastic online resources for young people, parents and teachers.
Childnet International - more fantastic resources for all on making the internet a safe place for young people.

Peace n love
Malibu x