CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) have recently released some fantastic resources for parents and carer's. The resources "Thinkuknow" is aimed at 5-7 year olds, 8-10 year olds and 11-16 year olds.
Changing the way children behave online is the key to keeping themselves safe from abuse, said Jim Gamble today, head of the CEOP Centre - the UK's national centre for protecting children.
It is the theme that dominates CEOP's role in spearheading the UK's response to European Safer Internet Day 2010 and is central to a number of initiatives being launched by the organisation today (9th February).
39,000 volunteers spread across the UK have all been trained to help deliver CEOP's advice-giving programme and will play their part in reaching children and parents in schools, workshops and clubs.
With 1 in 5 parents of 5-7 year olds highlighting concern about who their child (or children) is in contact with online (10% very concerned, 8% fairly concerned), CEOP has developed a new animated film, ‘Lee and Kim’s Adventures’, designed to introduce very young children to the concepts of personal information and trust. This resource is being delivered to schoolchildren across the UK.
David Coleman, clinical psychologist, broadcaster and author, was given early access to the new CEOP resources while it was being developed:
The 'Lee and Kim’ film introduces young children to a number of important concepts which will enable them to explore online environments safely. Understanding what constitutes 'private' information - and recognising that people can pretend to be different online - is critical to developing safe behaviour online, which greatly reduces their vulnerability to abuse. I am certain that children will identify with the Lee and Kim characters as they and their superhero tackle these issues in an engaging and age-appropriate way."
The new, customised ‘Click CEOP’ browser developed by Microsoft on Internet Explorer 8, provides users with the opportunity to customise their browser so that they can get direct access to CEOP's advice pages. There they will see all issues covered from cyberbullying and viruses through to sexual abuse and inappropriate content - advice that is kept contemporary by signposting to and input from organisations such as Childline, the Internet Watch Foundation, Get Safe Online and Beatbullying as well as being updated by the trends, themes and patterns that CEOP's own teams see every day through the thousands of reports it receives.
The portal - www.clickceop.net - is also where users will land if they follow the advice of a DCSF campaign being launched today that encourages internet users to ‘click clever, click safe’. CEOP is a member of the UK's Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) who are supporting the campaign.
Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the CEOP Centre and lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on protecting children on the internet, said:
Each month we see an average of 500 reports into CEOP, of which – on average - four a day indicate that a child may be at immediate risk. That is the harsh reality of child protection. But so often we leave our young people vulnerable because we fear the technology. That is like saying we can’t teach children how to be safe when crossing the road because we don’t understand how a car engine works or the risk if that car is driven in a dangerous way.
“This is about behaviour, not technology. But it is also about delivering contemporary, dynamic advice that is sympathetic to the needs of the children and young people we reach and helps the parent or carer to play their role in a way that is positive, supportive and understanding. CEOP’s materials do that. We have updated them to cover new issues such as ‘sexting’ and new forms of bullying and we have listened to teachers to deliver new cartoons for very young children.
" We welcome the approach from Microsoft who are giving parents and children the opportunity to customise their browser to access safety advice in a quick simple way. We applaud Microsoft, O2 and Visa Europe for their critical contribution of online safety training in schools under the Protect programme.”
