Rebecca's Secrets

At last my first novel is published here! Here's the blurb...

What happens when a boy starts asking questions? It’s New Year’s day, 1956, and as the low winter sun penetrates the dark corners of Eric Street, it sets fire to a boy’s curiosity.

“Until this day I’d lived unaware. I didn’t live my life — it lived me. But I did know I was different from other kids. There was something secret about me and my family. That morning I became curious. That day I started asking questions.”

Charming, funny and sad, this novel is based on a true story. Tommy Angel is an orphan growing up with his grandparents, Rebecca and Daniel, in the East End of London in the Fifties.

Tommy tries to make sense of the world around him but his questions arouse shameful memories, stir the family ghosts and open a box of dark family secrets. Gradually he uncovers the truth about his lost sisters, his real father and mother.

The author, a distinguished educator, born in 1945, grew up in an extended Jewish family in the East End of London. This debut novel is based his childhood.

Rebecca's secrets published by Lulu.com

200,000 Kids Cross the Greenland Ice Cap

Niall McCann (left) and Murray Smith (right) of Team Epic (Patron Sir Ranulph Fiennes) are good friends of SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe, so were happy to take about 200,000 children with them on their epic 25-day crossing of the Greenland Ice Cap.

They journeyed on foot, unsupported – just the two of them, hauling 90kg sleds 335 miles up and over the mile thick ice cap, from Tasiilaq on the East coast to Kangerlussuaq on the West coast. While on the ice they risked close encounters with polar bears, they spent whole days skiing in whiteout conditions with gale-force winds and temperatures as low as -25°C plus wind-chill. Their ski bindings broke. They suffered blisters, sunburn, snow blindness, and frostbite in some awkward places. Murray even met one of Santa's Elves.

They shared all the risk, all the effort and sometimes the excruciating pain with the children of SCP and GSC who walked with them every step of the way through their blog in the Adventure Club and their courageous efforts inspired over 100 children to write accounts of their own real life adventures.

Must-Read Report from ACMA

Download the report here.

I recommend a read of the latest report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority on developments in internet filtering technologies and other measures for promoting online safety (Apr 2009)

Check out p. 43 for a good overview of the use (or not) of age verification to validate children online.

Pure Joy!

Child Protection Videos

I've brought together here some very powerful videos made by Intuitive Media's child safety partners CEOP, ChildNet International to help parents and young people understand the dangers of online grooming and bullying. But because most abused children are hurt by someone in their own family, I've included one video by NSPCC.

We probably suspect that young girls are the most vulnerable to online grooming, but this video from CEOP illustrates how quite mature teen boys can become prey.



Of course girls are vulnerable to predators too. Check out this video from CEOP.

Bullying is the most common form of online abuse, and as this story from ChildNet International shows, boys are just as vulnerable as girls:



Where's Klaus from CEOP is a great reminder to parents to keep track of just who our children are talking to:



BUT we have to remember that online abuse is relatively rare and while one child dies of abuse every week, the culprit is most likely to be someone in the child's family. That's why Intuitive Media supports NSPCC:

Kids Demand Prime Minister Makes Childhood Safer

What would you say to the Prime Minister if you found yourself alone in a lift with him for 30 seconds? Well, we now know exactly what 6000 children aged six to 14 would say!

Today Intuitive Media published a new research report that calls for the Prime Minister and the Government to do more to listen to children; keep children safe; stop bullying; cut down gun and knife crime and ban drugs, alcohol and smoking.

Someone's listening!
The Rt.Hon Charles Clarke MP, listens to kids
who took part in the Happy & Safe research

Over 6,000 children, aged six to 14 years in SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe contributed to the Happy and Safe research and they called for extra policing and surveillance in parks and other places where they play and on their walk to and from school. One of the most popular suggestions from the children was an emergency number that they can call anytime they felt unsafe (63%) or more specifically a police helpline on their mobile (59%).

We asked the children what made them feel happy and safe in the real world and in their new online worlds and we also invited them to tell the Government how their lives could be improved. The children told us what they would say to the Prime Minister if they found themselves alone in a lift with him for 30 seconds.

Children said if they felt the streets were safe, 83 per cent of them would walk to school every day and if parks were safer 78 per cent of children would play out more. Nearly two thirds (60%) suggested using signs to either warn children a place is safe or unsafe to play.

The children's biggest concerns were violence (54%), street crime (53%) and sadly half of them (51%) worry about their parents arguing or divorcing. Nearly half, (48%) worry about their own health, and in recession-hit Britain, 40 per cent worry about being poor.

"I want the Prime Minister to stop gang crime and alcohol and drugs being on the streets as I don't like sleeping on a Friday or Saturday night because of all the shouting and teenagers around.”
- Megan, 11

Overall, the report shows that most children (82%) do feel happy and safe most of the time and that the love of their family and friends is the most important source of happiness. However, they also said that boredom is the biggest downer (74%) along with adults who expect too much of them and having to work too hard. They want more freedom to play (52%), relax (49%) and pursue their hobbies (65%) and they want more time to spend in their online communities being creative (60%).

“I'd say that he [the Prime Minister] needs to seriously think about the amount of homework given in school. I've been really stressed about all the work I have to do, and one week I didn't even have any time to do anything fun at all.”
- Catriona, 13

When looking at children's everyday online behaviour, we found there is still significant leeway for them to stray into risky behaviour online with over a third of children (38%) using their computers alone in their rooms giving them the opportunity to surf the web unsupervised and take part in private online conversations without their parents' knowledge.

And, despite most children (80%) claiming they do understand the risk of giving personal contact details out to strangers online there is still a minority (15%), that don't. In addition, 15 per cent of children said they wouldn't tell their parents, teachers or friends if someone they met online came to their house (14%) phoned them (16%) or asked for their contact details (17%).

We've sent the report to Gordon Brown and Ed Balls. It will be interesting to see their response. I'll let you know what they have to say to the kids.

Does social networking harm children's brains?

We've just had a 'Chilling warning to parents' from top neuroscientist, Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield who says that "Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users". Her fear is that"'these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.' The baroness is worried that children's brains are changing: 'It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations,' she said.

I do worry when scientists and academics cross the line from measuring and explaining changes to telling us how to think about their findings. They can't know anymore than we can what will turn out to be an evolutionary advantageous change and what will be disadvantageous.

The Internet is rotting your brain, Jack!

OLD KNOWLEDGE
People (including kids) no longer have the skills to read slide rules or logarithm tables. Should we regret that? No. Life moves on and demands new knowledge, new understandings and new kinds of creativity and personal interaction. That's what our kids are learning, partly through engaging in their online worlds and social networks.

INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
Kids are gaining inter-cultural understanding. Research on the kids in IM's Social Learning Networks (SuperClubsPLUS.com and GoldStarCafe.net) found that 60% of children's online friends are outside their town, in fact, they are scattered across the UK and in 45 different countries. To these kids a foreigner is not a stranger to be feared or mocked, but a friend to play with and work with, write stories together, build online clubs together, and discuss world news as it's happening.

Social Learning Networks encourage kids to think on a more global scale. They understand our global interdependence far better than most of their parents.

INTERPERSONAL UNDERSTANDING
This month our kids have been talking to Australian kids about the terrible bush fires. Its been a valuable way for the Aussie kids to express their feelings and for the UK kids to express their empathy, for something that's might be on the other side of the world, but that involves real people - their online friends. Now that's NEW - very different to watching a news article on the television - our kids are directly involved and able to immediately offer some comfort and help. It's a new experience and it encourages new ways of thinking.

MULTI-THINKING, MULTI-TASKING
We know many of our kids spend a couple of hours each evening social networking in SuperClubsPLUS or GoldStarCafe. At the same time they are instant messaging and talking on their phones and they also have one eye on the TV and one ear awaiting Mum's call for tea. You could say that's damaging and making them butterfly minded, distracted and shallow or you could say it's turning them into fast-paced multi-taskers, who can think and work effectively in multiple media.

BRINGING FAMILIES CLOSER IN LEARNING
We also know that taking part in a Social Learning Network - far from isolating children and inhibiting conversation
can actually bring children closer to their families. Research by the Scottish Executive found that nearly all parents of kids in SuperClubsPLUS believed that use of the service had improved their child’s interest in learning 84% of parent said that SuperClubsPLUS raised their child’s attainment and encouraged parents to collaborate with their children on school work. - SuperClubsPLUS Evaluation For Learning and Teaching Scotland April 2007.

More recent research also shows the Internet is bringing families together.

"It is clear from the research results that the Internet has gained a significant place in children's daily lives. Almost all of the children surveyed use the Internet at home with their parents. Their mothers are particularly engaged with their homework and formal learning and take an interest in their online safety. Fathers join in to a lesser extent but encourage children with the fun aspects and help them with their hobbies." - Learning in the Family, November 2008

There is even evidence that kids using Social Learning Networks are becoming better learners: The University of Hertfordshire found that kids using SuperClubsPLUS "become better learners". - An Evaluation of the Educational and Social Benefits of SuperClubsPLUS for children - Dr. Karen Pine, School of Psychology, University of Hertfordshire, September 2006.

LEARNING MATTERS
The big difference here, is that these social networks are dedicated to LEARNING and deliberately set out to optimise the learning experience for children. That doesn't mean they are not entertaining too, but enabling learning is the network provider's main driver.

Yes maybe Facebook encourages us to be a bit self-regarding and maybe playing violent multi-player video games gives us a taste for death and deatruction. But maybe we should all have the humility to say that the world is changing, we are changing and kids are changing, and that's evolution. It's not good. It's not Bad. It's just different and who knows where it will lead? I don't and nor does Baroness Greenfield.

www,intuitivemedia.com
www.superclubsplus.com
www.goldstarcafe.net