Ireland - WATCH_YOUR_SPACE
Minister launches new internet safety campaign - WATCH YOUR SPACE
The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, T.D., launched WATCH YOUR SPACE - a new campaign to raise awareness and promote safe, responsible practice by young people when online. The key messages of the campaign are:
- be creative !
- be yourself !
- be in control !
The campaign has a strong peer-to-peer perspective and centres on an interactive online service, www.watchyourspace.ie developed by the National Centre Technology in Education (NCTE).This site offers practical tips and advice and supports teenagers who use the web. A key feature is the advice given from teenagers to teenagers on how to cope with the fall-out from abuses and misuse of social networking and picture -sharing websites.
Webwise has developed a short video that will give you an insight into what teenagers are doing online, what they think the risks are, and what advice they share with each other about getting the most out of the new online interactive service.
<<< Click here to watch the video >>>
<<< Click here to watch the video >>>
Launching the new safety campaign Minister Hanafin said "we are now seeing an explosion of creativity. When online young people should ensure that they are creative, be themselves but above all be in control. Disclosing too much personal information can put young people at increased risks of commercial exploitation, bullying and harassment. Some of the content on these sites ranges from careless to shocking and can include obscenity and bullying.
Advice on the site is very clear - "once you upload a picture to the Internet you have lost control of it. It can be copied, altered and displayed in different contexts without your consent. Stay in control by only uploading pictures that you are happy for everyone to see."
Minister Hanafin said "teenagers are actively creating personal profiles, reviewing books on Amazon, recording podcasts, blogging about their hobbies and recording songs about their experiences. They are filming the major events in their lives and sharing them with their friends and family using the web. This is great as long as it is done in a sensible, responsible and safe manner."
Watch Your Space has presentations of the key findings from studies of teenagers' use of the Internet by other teenagers. It is also integrated with an online helpline service from Childline. The website will be promoted through a poster campaign in schools and supported by an educational and informational pack being sent to all schools.
Minister Hanafin welcomed students from seven schools from around the country who won awards and commendations at this year's BT Young Scientist exhibition, with projects on how teenagers are using the internet.
"I am pleased to see the strong peer-to-peer perspective of this campaign - all this new media are, above all, young persons' media and young people have much to learn from each other about safe and responsible online practice."
Comments
Very interesting contribution.
Posted by: Sofia | February 6, 2007 04:02 PM