Creating Community Conversations - Gallomanor

House of Lords to debate social networking sites and child safety

Lord Toby Harris is proposing a debate in the House of Lords on February 12th. The proposal reads:

Lord Harris of Haringey to call attention to the growth in the use of social networking internet sites by children and the adequacy of safeguards to protect their privacy and interests; and to move for papers.

If you're interested in this subject head over and leave a comment.

I'm not sure what exactly the purpose of the debate is.  If it results in more attention on issues surrounding educating young people and parents about inline privacy issues then that would be a good result.  If the result is proposed legislation to restrict use of social networks or if it is increased hysteria about online safety then it is not good.

Youth help elderly technophobes

School children in Wiltshire are to help older people in the county become more familiar with new technology.

Shock horror.  Some positive youth coverage in the media.

Quick Plug:  Tom Gaskin of NorfolkBlurb is leading a session at the Empowerment Symposium on "Young people and eParticipation: X-Factor excitement meets bureaucratic boredom".  He's asked me to be part of the panel along with a team of young people and youth workers.  We'll be trying to shake up the conference format a little and see how much the conference grandees are willing to learn from young people.  On the agenda is social networking, media portrayal of youth and whatever the audience brings up on the day.

Bit of a B**ls up

It seems as though people emailing schools might have some trouble getting through according to Tony Attwood, moderator of the Education Marketing news group.

An update he sent about changes in Government were blocked by a number of school filter systems because it contained "a forbidden word".

What, or rather who, was causing the problems?  Of course it was Ed Balls, the Secretary of State at the new DCFS.

**It reminds me of the problem ITV.com once had when running online chats with players from a certain North London club.  You couldn't post anything that contained arse.**

The Great Turtle Race

The Great Turtle Race is a fabulous site highlighting conservation efforts with Leatherback Turtles in the Pacific. 

I love the way that what could be a dry boring site about marine animals is turned into an exciting race (well, hopefully it will be exciting by Day 14). 

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust ran something similar (although not quite a race) where you could track the location of Brent Geese as they migrated to and from Canada and Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.  IIRC it hit the headlines because one of the geese ended up in a local hunter's freezer near Baffin Island.

(Hat-tip to Bob Piper)