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Insafe Newsletter
Issue 45: May 2009 |
Insafe Monthly Newsletter - #45 May 2009
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Welcome to the Insafe Newsletter!
Twittering
bridges - The future of Social
Networks
For many, social networks are ingrained in our
daily lives. We “network” in LinkedIn, catch up with friends and family
in Facebook and research our hobbies via blogs, forums and wikis. These
services are no longer the realm of IT gurus. With the advent of web2.0
and related mobile devices these resources have become so easy even my
Mum is using them.
The shift has been on three levels;
- faster networks with a wider coverage (from
fixed line PCs to mobile devices)
- convergence of different multimedia
technologies into cheap, small, easy to use devices (phone, camera, pc,
video, audio, gaming)
- proliferation of web services as a platform for
communications (flickr, del.icio.us, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Youtube)
This allows us to communicate with more people,
from more locations and all in multimedia (text, photos, video and
sound). Each citizen can now broadcast to an online social network in
an unprecedented manner.
The question is, where will this lead? We can
assume that networks are going to get even faster, mobile devices
cheaper, smaller and more powerful and the number of web services will
increase.
We are now moving beyond just people being part of
social networks but inanimate objects and animals too, for example your
fridge
could track it’s contents and even order fresh food, Tower Bridge tells
people when it will open next via Twitter, you can even monitor
your dog’s daily activities and upload it to the web. It
seems that just as we begin to come to terms with Social Networks and
the advantages and issues these raise, new devices and services appear
opening new threats and opportunities we had never imagined.
For example would a dogcam
potentially embarrass visiting friends? What do you do when your fridge
gets a virus or crashes? What if a major transport artery’s XML feed
were to be hacked?
The fact is that these technologies will advance
and entrepreneurs will discover new services to sell to people. We need
to be aware of where these technologies are spreading and what
potential risks they may bring to young people. Then we need to utilise
these very same tools to propagate a sensible message.
As adults we may lack the technological savvy of
the young but we do have life experience we can share to the generation
growing up in this two way multimedia rich environment.
One thing worth reminding ourselves is that over
time technology gets easier to use, not harder. My 82 year old
grandmother silver surfing on her netbook is proof of this.
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Press
release: O2 (Ireland) launches new service to combat cyberbullying
Dublin,
Monday 25 May 2009 - O2 today announced details of a new service to
combat bullying on mobile phones. Called Block It, the new service,
which is free of charge, allows O2 customers to block unwanted text,
picture and video messages from other mobile phone numbers. The
service, which will be available from mid-June, can block messages sent
from any Irish mobile network, and will work on any mobile
handset.
Read
more
Adults are concerned about online child abuse, Kids are worried about
embarrassing pictures, SPAM and viruses on the Internet
Report
from the public presentation on “Protecting children using the
Internet” hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee. Read
more
Digital games in classroom teaching: how
do teachers use them?
A groundbreaking new European study, released at a
major EU conference hosted by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg,
sheds light on how teachers use digital games in the classroom for
learning purposes. The conference was opened by the European
Commissioner for Education and Culture, Jan Figel, underlining the
importance of the study. It covers commercial as well as “serious”
games. It was carried out by European Schoolnet, a network of 31
Ministries of Education, commissioned by the Interactive Software
Federation of Europe (ISFE). Read
more
Gymnasium
Saarburg 2.0 – a playground for media education
The
Gymnasium Saarburg in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, has begun to set
up an exclusively internal social network. Apart from an enhanced sense
of community through a more transparent communication structure, the
aspect of media education plays a decisive role. Read
more
Safer April in Prague
A series of events aimed at keeping children safer
on the internet started on March 28th. More than 220 children met at
the Junior Internet conference in Prague. This year the conference
celebrated the 10th anniversary of Safer Internet Day. For this reason,
many of the competitions launched during the event focused on the
history of the event and past winners. Some of them are successful
entrepreneurs or university students now – and of course have an
excellent track record of being involved in internet oriented
competitions and with successful online experiences. The Czech national
safer internet project awarded the participants of the conference with
a Safer internet family toolkit. Read
more
Social
Networking: e-INTEGRITY
In the light of the recent
Safer Internet Day on the 10th of February the significance of social
networking is clear. Networking has become one of the fastest and most
effective ways of carrying out a range of activities. Many people are
taking advantage of online meetings to make new friends, gather
information, shop, or to improve business and schooling opportunities.
It can often appear that everyone is a member of a social network. It
may be your family or friends who are using spaces such as MySpace and
Facebook or colleagues on LinkedIn. Read
more
Silver Surfers on the Net Turf
In sharp contrast to the senior citizens of the
past, today the over 60s are casting aside hobbies like gardening or
knitting and surfing the Net turf is the new trend. Web enthusiastic
seniors are actively exploring the new turf. Social networking sites
like Facebook, twitter and friends re-united are just a few sites
eagerly being used by older generations. Seniors find the web
particularly useful to connect with friends and family. They are
regularly hooking up to the Internet in order to keep up to date with
the latest events in their social networks. Senior citizens are
confidently using applications such as Skype and are comfortable in
using wireless networks to connect to the internet. Read
more
Young People’s Views on Online Privacy
In "Youth and Privacy", the
Swedish Data Inspection Board reviews young people’s attitudes on
privacy and integrity issues, and in particular in relation to the
Internet. The survey concludes that young people’s attitudes differ
from adults’. Read
more
Fundación Solventia in cooperation with
Diaz-Bastien & Truan Centre of Studies and Fundación ACS
develops a research project to analize minor’s privacy in new
technologies
Fundación Solventia, in cooperation with the Centre
of Studies Díaz-Bastien &Truan and the Fundación ACS aims to
promote an ambitious research project supervised by the Professor in
Administrative Law and former Director of the Spanish Data Protection
Agency, Luis Piñar Mañas. Read
more
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Protecting Children and Young People from Sexual Violence with a Focus
on the New Media: Perspectives for Europe
30 June, 2009, Berlin, Germany
This is the European follow-up conference to
the 3rd World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and
Adolescents, which took place in November last year in Rio de Janeiro.
The German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth will hold this follow-up conference in Berlin. Read
more (www.child-protection-conference.org)
World Summit on Media for
Children and Youth
14-18 June, 2010, Karlstad,
Sweden
World Summit Karlstad will contribute towards
smarter adults, children and youth with good insight into the media and
excellent media knowledge and skills and will be the most important
meeting place in 2010. The programme offers more than 100 sessions, and
international top quality experts will hold lectures, seminars and
workshops. Of these 100 sessions, 40 have high quality professional
relevance to children and youth specialists such as teachers and
leisure time staff, researchers and youth NGOs. For example, learn
about about the new competencies, digital resources and media tools
strengthening children and youth. If you preliminary registrate before
June 15, you will get a substantial discount. The programme will be
released September 15. Read
more (www.wskarlstad2010.se)
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Insafe is a
European network of 27 nodes in 27 countries that are dedicated to
raising awareness of internet safety. It is coordinated by the European
Schoolnet and supported by the European Commission through the Safer
Internet Programme.
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