Category Archives: News

News

Facebook to adopt CEOP button

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Facebook has announced that they will be linking their social networking site to the CEOP report abuse button.  We have added this button on our Glow blogs (on the sidebar to the right).

The button will report abuse to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre as well as Facebook.

The button will not automatically appear on every users profile.  Instead, users will be required to add the button as an ‘app’.  They can do this in one of 3 ways, by clicking the CEOP tab, sharing the CEOP badge, or adding the CEOP bookmark.  Don’t know the difference?  Neither do I.  Whilst I think it is a big step forward that Facebook are recognising the importance of the CEOP report abuse feature in this way, I am not sure if it goes far enough.

Advertising of this app will be directed towards Facebook users aged between 11 – 18 (assuming that they registered with their correct date of birth).  Many, including my 12 year old cousin, signed up with a false date of birth (in her case 1970) to get around Facebook’s requirement for users to be at least 13 years old.

It may just be a teething problem, but when I tried to share this news with my friends I got about 40 new windows opening up.  Enough to put someone off!

You are requested to log in to the “clickCEOP” badge app.  I am not comfortable with this as too many of these apps share information with third party software providers.

When I did manage to get the “app” on my page it showed me how many other Facebook users ‘liked’ the button.  None of these other users were my ‘friends’ but as their accounts were not private I was able to view their profiles.  Again this does not add up to me.  Great that Facebook are taking steps in Internet Safety, but work to be done?

I was then discouraged that after I had followed the 3 steps it was not obvious to me where the click CEOP button was on my Facebook page.  As I have more than 4 ‘apps’ on the go already I had to click the ‘more’ button to be able to see it.

There was widespread news coverage over the last few months, saying that Facebook was resisiting the idea.  The launch follows months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook, which initially resisted the idea.

Bebo became the first network to add the button with MySpace following suit, but Facebook resisted the change, saying its own reporting systems were sufficient.

Pressure mounted on Facebook following the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, posing as a teenage boy, who she met on Facebook.  Forty-four police chiefs in England, Wales and Scotland, signed a letter backing Ceop’s call for a panic button on every Facebook page.

Source: BBC News

Have you used any of these new CEOP/Facebook features?  It would be great to hear what your experience has been.

News

Resignation of Barack Obama virus hoax

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Once again a virus hoax is spreading quickly over the internet, forwarded by well-intentioned folk who really should have spent more time researching whether the warning was genuine or not.

The warning tells people to look out for emails which have the subject line “Postcard from Bejing” (sic) or “Resignation of Barack Obama” as the attached file can “burn the whole hard C disc (sic) of your computer”.

Of course, this is nonsense. The warning shares many similarities with other virus hoaxes we have seen in the past including Olympic Torch, Virtual Card for You and Sector Zero.

The typical text of the hoax warning reads as follows:

Subject: FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'POSTCARD FROM BEJING' or 'RESIGNATION OF BARACK OBAMA ', regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus that opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, then 'burns' the whole hard C disc of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in their contact list. This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail entitled 'POSTCARD FROM BEJING' or 'RESIGNATION OF BARACK OBAMA' even though sent to you by a trusted friend, under no circumstance, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN last evening. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. The virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.

Hoaxes like this exist because it’s so easy to forward an electronic warning to all of your friends and colleagues, and many people who may be suspicious of the warning decide it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Internet users should think very carefully before they send a message on to all of their contacts, as they may be perpetuating an irritating hoax. You should always check to see if it is believable, and not a known hoax, before even considering sending it onto other computer users.

It’s worth remembering that hoaxes can cause serious problems, as innocent users over-react to the alert. Sometimes users become convinced that they have become infected by the bogus virus, and when their anti-virus software “fails” to find the infection resort to deleting critical files or formatting their hard drive.

Virus hoaxes aren’t just a nuisance, they’re a menace. By forwarding these hoaxes to your friends and family you could be panicking them into taking the worst possible action.

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News

The need for education?

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The Internet is a living thing, which is changing daily.  More and more we are seeing users, and young people in particular, driving the Internet forward, in terms of content and what you can do online.

To youth, social media and technologies are not something extra added on to their lives; they’re embedded in their lives. Their offline and online lives have converged into one life. They are socializing in various environments, using various digital and real-life “tools,” from face-to-face gatherings to cell phones to social network sites, to name just a few.

Youth Safety on a living Internet:

Report of the Online Safety and Technology Working group

The above quote is taken from the US online Safety and Technology Working group, who produced a 148 page report looking into Internet Safety.  The report was published on June 4 2010 and makes much use of the wording ‘responsible use’ when referring to child Internet safety.  Amongst other things the report includes 106 Internet based resources on the subject of Internet Safety and Responsible Use.  We are busy looking through these resources and will be asking practitioners to review the best ones to share with the learning community in Scotland.

We have always taught our children to be safe.  I can still remember being taught the Green Cross Code when I was at school.  The issues we are addressing here are no different.  The sole purpose of resources and conversations like this is to keep our children safe.  As educators, parents, carers, grandparents and adults we have a responsibility to keep children safe, whether they are offline or online.  We know what way the traffic flows, but do we know how Facebook privacy settings work, how to record MSN chat by default, how to set up parental controls on the Nintendo Wii, that the DSi has Internet access or what POS means?  Before we can begin to help our children we must educate ourselves.  We are willing to teach ourselves, provide information and resources, engage in conversations and ask for help.  Who is willing to join us?

You can contribute in a number of ways, via the new Glow group, commenting on this blog or adding a resource to the new resources blog.

PS – I only learned POS (parent of shoulder) last week!