Facebook's First Steps To Protect Our Children
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Facebook will not add a safety button on each user's profile page, despite calls from a leading UK child protection agency, saying they would ‘confuse and intimidate’ users. Instead it will run a £5m safety campaign including a 24-hour police hotline.
The move comes after a lengthy four-hour meeting in Washington with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan.
Facebook stopped short of adding a CEOP safety button to each user's profile page, but did announce a raft of new safety measures which it believes will be more effective in protecting children's safety online.
Instead of the button, UK users under the age of 19 will now be able to click on the ‘Report abuse’ link on each page and have the option to report the abuse directly to CEOP as well as to Facebook employees.
Richard Allan, Facebook's director of policy for Europe, said: “We completely accept that our users should be able to report abuse directly to CEOP but we disagree on the best design solution to implement that.
"From our experience big graphics of ‘buttons’ produce less good results – in terms of people actually reporting abuse. They intimidate and confuse people. We think our simple text link, which gives people the option to report abuse to CEOP as well as to the Facebook team, is a far more effective solution.”
The integration of the CEOP reporting option has gone live with immediate effect and Facebook has chosen to integrate the CEOP button into its ‘Safety and Help Centre’ – as it believes the button makes “good sense” in that context.
Facebook has now launched the UK's largest online safety campaign. Facebook's comprehensive initiative is designed to better protect its 23 million British users and to give them greater control over their safety online.
The campaign consists of:
Redesigned Abuse Reporting System:
Facebook's reporting system will enable users to report unwanted or suspicious contact directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and other leading safety and child protection organisations.
A £5 million investment in education and awareness:
Facebook will provide leading safety organisations with one billon advertising impressions to help them to raise awareness and educate the millions of Britons who rely on Facebook every day on how to stay safe online. Facebook has also introduced a new Safety Centre with improved resources for parents, teachers, teens and police.
Improved cooperation with police:
Facebook will create a new 24 hr police hotline, dedicated solely to helping UK police with emergencies, investigations and prosecutions.
Public-private partnership:
The company called on government to consider new ways in which information about registered sex offenders can be securely shared with social networks – a model widely deployed by the US States Attorney Generals which has effectively removed dangerous individuals from access to such services.
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Tags: Facebook, Online, Social, Network, Bullying, Save...
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Barnet Council Admits Loss Of Pupils Data
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Personal details of 9,000 school pupils in Barnet have been stolen from the home of a council employee, bosses have announced.
Nick Walkley, chief executive of Barnet Council, has written to parents to apologise but said the risks associated with the data breach were minimal.
Information held included children's names, educational attainment, entitlement to free meals and postcodes and phone numbers.
Some records were more detailed and those parents received a separate letter.
Although the database of kids from year 11 in 2007, 2008 and 2009 was encrypted, the loss happened when a member of staff copied the unencrypted data onto CD Roms and USB sticks.
In breach of the council's policy the employee took home 20 unauthorised and unencrypted CDs and memory sticks full of the children's details including names, dates of birth, addresses, free school meals eligibility and school attainment records.
Two weeks ago burglars broke in and stole the employee's laptop, which was encrypted and cannot be used, together with the discs.
The council said it has now disabled external storage devices to stop staff making unauthorised copies of data and is setting up an independent review of what went wrong.
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Tags: Data, Loss, Barnet, Pupils, Council
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School Children Could Face Fitness Tests
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lostchild
Proposals are underway for school children to face annual fitness tests.
The stamina testing 'bleep tests' is the standard Sir Liam Donaldson has proposed, where students will have to cross from one line to another set 20m away in the time it takes for a bleep to sound. The intervals between bleeps gets lesser as the test continues, which is useful for providing a quantitative fitness figure; if someone fails to make it to the other line in the 5th bleep, their score will be 4, a way method many athletes, especially rugby players, use to measure their stamina.
This idea to test fitness amongst schoolchildren is also similar to schemes that take place throughout Texas and California.
Sir Donaldson has suggested that these tests would serve to promote mental wellbeing, a healthy weight and reduce risks of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. However, when it comes to how the results are dealt with the plan is to pass them to the families of children in a hope that measures will be taken at home to encourage children to eat right and get involved with fitness. These tips are constantly being spouted across the media with some parents doing nothing about it leading to thoughts that this plan would serve only to deminish some children's confidence.
The fear is that children who fall into their BMI targets could potentially be told they are unfit by the proposed bleep test leading to a worse mental body image. Furthermore, children could view this test as a ranking amongst body image and those that fall short of their peers may initially lose enough confidence that they would firstly not do anything to change their attitude towards fitness and secondly, may start to comfort eat. As much as mental health is said to benefit, there are psychological factors which suggest that mental health could be severely compromised.
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Tags: School, Children, Fitness, Test, Proposals, Sir, ...
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Sex Offender Disclosure System To Protect Children
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People concerned about those with access to children can now look them up on a new database being launched by police this summer.
Under the Child Sex Offenders’ Disclosure scheme, the parent, carer or guardian or another relevant interested party can request that an individual who has access to a child or children is checked.
If this person is found to pose a serious risk of harm to that child then the information will be disclosed to that parent or guardian, however the information is confidential and cannot be passed any further without permission.
But the system is not going to be used for ‘fishing for information’ according to Detective Inspector Nick Deacon, who is leading the introduction of the scheme to the Thames Valley.
He said the scheme is to protect children from harm.
The system will allow people with genuine concern for children to find information about an individual and if they have previous sexual convictions. If the search reveals a paedophile, Thames Valley Police (TVP) will then work with the parents to ensure the protection of their child.
Det Insp Deacon said: “This is not a panacea. It is an additional tool but it gives the public the confidence to contact the police if they have concerns. People might have wanted to know but previously have been unable to ask.
“In a controlled way people can make an application for the disclosure and then the disclosure will be considered. It will all relate back to the question of whether it protects the child or children. If it is a fishing expedition, that would be turned down. The request has to be made, then an application has to be made and then it can be considered.
“People will not just be able to dig for information on people.”
The scheme was piloted in other parts of the country on a 12-month trial and TVP will now be one of 18 other police areas to be part of phase two of the scheme in August before it is rolled out nationwide by March 2011.
The Child Sex Offenders’ Disclosure scheme was launched in September 2008 and was spearheaded by child protection campaigner Sara Payne, from Hersham, Surrey, whose daughter Sarah was abducted and killed by a paedophile.
Det Insp Deacon added: “Registered offenders still need to live in a community under their human rights but we are just working to minimise the risk to the public.
“Each force is responsible for its own scheme and we are planning to undertake this with the existing resources available. The pilot study has shown that there is unlikely to be a huge surge in legitimate applications and we are planning to cope with these with the staff we already have.
“We already do a lot of work with sex offenders but the difference now is that we can receive requests for information directly from the public.”
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Tags: Children, Sex, Offender, System, Protection
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Haiti Children Smile Again
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lostchild
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The sound of children laughing again was heard in the earthquake devastated Haitian capital of Port au Prince on Saturday.
Youngsters of all ages from a camp near the wrecked presidential palace turned up for a few minutes respite from the hardships of life, thanks to the French Canadian charity 'Clowns Without Borders'. The four-man troupe arrived three days ago in the rubble-strewn capital, bringing laughter to hundreds of kids.
They are sponsored by the Haitian branch of the Boy Scouts, which has been taking the group to refugee camps. Alex George, a Boy Scouts' spokesman, said his organization is trying, in a small but important way, to lessen the stress and help Haitian families find some relief from the devastation around them.
"This catastrophe stole the childhood from the kids, so they suddenly became adults. So now its the time for them to go back to being a child, and smile, " said George.
The clowns expect to spend the next 10 days in the country staging shows at different camps and venues and they've promised more visits to Haiti throughout 2010.
Clowns Without Borders (CWB) was founded in Barcelona in July 1993 after a Spanish clown was invited to perform at a refugee camp in Croatia and 700 children turned up. Similar organizations started in France and Sweden and by 2000 members had put on more than 700 touring shows in trouble-spots around the globe. There are now CWB organizations in nine countries - Spain, France, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, South Africa, Canada and the United States.
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Tags: Clowns Without Borders, Haiti, Children, Entertai...
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Children's Miracle Network supporting Haiti relief
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Children's Miracle Network, a fund-raising charity organisation supporting 170 children's hospitals spanning the globe, has created a fund to support its hospitals that are taking in sick and injured children being evacuated from Haiti, as well as providing medical supplies and personnel on the ground. Donors can go to www.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/haiti to contribute, These funds will directly benefit Children's Miracle Network hospitals contributing to the relief efforts in Haiti.
“Children with critical injuries and life-threatening illnesses are being evacuated from Haiti and taken to Children's Miracle Network hospitals in the United States where they are getting the world-class treatment they deserve,” said Marie Osmond, Children's Miracle Network co-founder. “Our hospitals have selflessly put aside concerns of cost and inconvenience because the staff at each of these hospitals would do anything to save the life of any child.”
Here are just a few examples of how Children's Miracle Network hospitals are supporting Haiti relief and the type of care that will be supported by the Children's Miracle Network Haiti Fund:
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh accepted more than 50 Haitian orphans into the hospital; all are triage patients.
The US Department of Health and Human Services has asked Le Bonheur Children's in Memphis, Tenn. to provide two pediatric medical teams to assist in Haiti – a surgical critical care team and a critical care transport team. The hospital is also sending supplies and pharmaceuticals to Haiti.
Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I. sent two craniofacial surgeons, one of which previously spent a year working in Haiti. Medical supplies, including surgical packs, gauze, scalpels, sutures, anesthesia, gowns, surgical drapes, and more have also been provided to the area.
As part of Orlando Health, Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children is collaborating with the US Department of Health and Human Services and other organizations to provide support and care to evacuees coming to Central Florida who need medical treatment.
“The crisis is very close to home as children are being evacuated to the United States for medical treatment, and medical personnel from our hospitals are donating their time and talent in Haiti,” said Scott Burt, Children's Miracle Network president and CEO. “We hope donors will open their hearts and give to the children's hospitals that are helping Haiti's youngest victims.”
More than 170 of the world's finest pediatric hospitals belong to Children's Miracle Network, a nonprofit that raises funds for 170 children's hospitals. The affiliate hospitals have banded together in times of crises several times before to care for children desperate for treatment, most recently during Hurricane Katrina when multiple Children's Miracle Network hospitals opened their doors to care for the patients of Children's Hospital – New Orleans, a Children's Miracle Network hospital.
Tags: Haiti, Children’s, Miracle, Network, Donate...
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Charity Praises Teesside Effort
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A NATIONAL children's charity which is calling for more support for sexually exploited children has praised the bravery of two local authorities on Teesside.
A recent report by Barnardo's highlighted a worrying trend in organised child trafficking for sexual exploitation within the UK.
But the charity has today praised Stockton and Middlesbrough Borough Councils for working closely with Barnardo's in a bid to tackle the issue.
In the last year, 48 young people have been rescued from sexual exploitation in Middlesbrough, and that figure is more than 20 in Stockton.
According to the report Whose Child Now? around 80% of local authorities do not have any specialist work for sexually exploited children and young people.
But thanks to the work of the Barnardo's run SECOS (Sexually Exploited Children on the Streets) in Middlesbrough and ACE (Against Child Exploitation) in Stockton, the issue is being addressed on Teesside.
Programme manager for Barnardo's North East Wendy Shepherd, pictured, told the Evening Gazette: “If you don’t pick the stone up and take a look, you’ll never know what's underneath. Stockton and Middlesbrough have been very brave and done that.
“It's not something they would want on pages of the newspapers, so it's brave when local authorities say ‘this is our issue and this is how we’re dealing with it’. I wish more would do that.”
Barnardo's is calling for all local authorities to ensure the needs of these children are specifically addressed in children's plans, by commissioning research and then addressing the problem, if necessary with a specific, direct service.
Research in the North-east over the past few years identified children as young as 11 and 12 being sexually exploited in towns and cities across the region. But according to Ms Shepherd, local authorities could learn from Middlesbrough and Stockton's shining example.
“If some of the areas look at the way we run Middlesbrough's SECOS and Stockton's ACE, they won’t go far wrong,” she said.
“We have to be vigilant. The better we get at detecting, the more sophisticated the perpetrators get. You can’t take your eye off the ball. You’ve got to be as clever as the people who wish to harm these children.”
A spokesman for Middlesbrough Council's children, families and learning department, said: “Middlesbrough Council has worked closely with Barnardo's North East over a number of years to prevent the sexual exploitation of children in the town. This work has been extremely valuable in protecting vulnerable children and has been mutually beneficial for both organisations.”
Of the 609 sexually exploited children and young people Barnardo's is currently working with, 90 appeared to have been trafficked within the UK.
Barnardo's will raise awareness of the issue of sexual exploitation and how the charity helps young people, with a major TV advertisement to air on national television on Friday, December 4.
Tags: National, Children, Exploitation, Charity, Effort
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Current Children's Charity Appeals UK
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CHASE hospice care for children
provides nursing, practical, and emotional support to families with children who are not expected to reach their 19th birthday across South West London, Surrey and Sussex. Dedicated help is given starting immediately after diagnosis, through bereavement and beyond. This support is offered to families in their homes, their local communities and at our children's hospice, Christopher's.
The CHASE service is provided 365 days of the year at no cost to the families themselves. This costs £4 million every year, raised almost entirely from donations and fundraising. Web Site: http://www.chasecare.org.uk/ Send email: fundraising@chasecare.org.uk
Breath Of Hope Children's Charity Registered UK Charity No 1117193
Help a Child Smile Appeal 2009
The help a Child smile appeal raises funds to send entertainers and famous children's characters into hospitals and hospices.
The hospital visits are to meet sick and very poorly Children - a smile can be a huge benefit to the healing of children and gives 'time out' from the usual routine of treatments. The entertainers bring along with them toys, magic, balloons and games not often found in a children's hospital ward and with the use of fun and laughter can bring a huge benifit to those children in hospital.
Website: www.breathofhope.co.uk
Tags: Current, Children’s, Charity, Charities, Ap...
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Children of working mums = unhealthier lifestyle
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Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
[Examining the relationship between maternal employment and health behaviours in 5 year old British children
Online First J Epidemiol Community Health 2009; doi: 10.1136/jech.2008.084590]
Children whose mothers go out to work have poorer dietary habits, engage in more sedentary activity, and are more likely to be driven to school than children's whose mothers are not employed, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The researchers base their findings on more than 12500 five year old singleton children who were part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
The mothers reported on the hours they worked and their children's usual dietary habits, exercise levels, and sedentary activities.
Questions included how much sweets and crisps, sweetened drinks, fruits and vegetables the child consumed, whether they took part in organised exercise, and how they got to school.
Mothers were also asked how long their child used a computer or TV each day.
After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, such as maternal education and socioeconomic circumstances, the findings showed that children whose mothers worked part- or full-time were more likely to drink sweetened drinks between meals than children whose mothers had never worked.
These children were also more likely to spend at least 2 hours a day in front of the TV or at a computer, and they were more likely to be driven to school rather than walk or cycle.
Children whose mothers worked full time were also less likely to snack on fruit or vegetables between meals, or to eat three or more portions of fruit a day.
Those whose mothers worked flexi time were more likely to have healthier lifestyles, but once other influential factors had been taken into account, there was little evidence that these children engaged in healthier behaviours.
While the work patterns of fathers have changed relatively little in recent decades, those of mothers have, with around 60% of mothers with children under 5 in the US and the UK now going out to work, say the authors.
But busy working parents may have less time to provide their children with healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity, say the authors, who cite previous research, suggesting a link between working mothers and a higher risk of obesity in their children.
“Our results do not imply that mother should not work,” they say. “Rather, they highlight the need for policies and programmes to help support parents”....to create a healthy environment for their children.
They suggest that dietary guidelines for children in formal child-care, similar to those already adopted in Scotland might be applied in England, for example.
Professor Catherine Law, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCL Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK
Tags: Children, Working, Mums, Unhealthy, Unhealthier, ...
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