Gordon Brown and Ed Balls announce today a new childrens safety code for the web

Bullying is, and always has been a hot topic for schools. Recent tragic high profile cases have meant that schools are now under increasing pressure to tackle bullying.

See breaking news at end of this message and how approaches to restorative justice in schools can deal with cyber-bullying. Quote from article below:

"An EU-wide study found 40 per cent of teenagers had been exposed to pornography online and 20 per cent had been bullied"

The DCSF report entitled Safe to Learn: Embedding Anti Bullying work in schools states: "In conjunction with disciplinary sanctions, there are a range of other strategies that schools can use to combat bullying. These include restorative justice approaches which hold pupils to account for their behaviour and engage with them to agree the actions to be taken to repair the harm caused".

To view the full report click here www.safetynetassociates.co.uk/documents/SAFETOLEARN.pdf

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Breaking News taken from the Daily Telegraph

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, will announce the new safety code for the web under the slogan "Zip It, Block It, Flag It",

The national strategy will encourage youngsters to use the internet and meet new people but to keep their personal information secret and prevent bullying.

The aim is to use simple and easy to remember tips similar to the famous road safety code that told children to "Stop, Look, Listen". In contrast, the new "digital code" will tell children and their parents to:

Zip It: Do not share personal, intimate details with strangers you have met online while also closing off parts of the web to children with security PINs or other parental controls.
 

Block It: Block emails, contact from people or companies you do not know and block children from accessing certain sites.
 

Flag It: Highlight any suspicious individuals, activities or websites to the releavant authority, whether a parent, teacher, police or industry group.

The code, to be launched by Mr Brown and Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, will form part of a wide-ranging internet safety strategy that will also involve a national awareness campaign and new industry standards to keep children safe.

It has been drawn up by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), which was set up to implement the recommendations from a report by Prof Tanya Byron, the psychologist and parenting expert, for Mr Brown last year.

UKCCIS, which is made up of over 140 organisations, including Facebook, Microsoft and Google, will draw up the standards.

Earlier this month, Prof Sonia Livingstone, of the London School of Economics and another board member and, said: "I think the road safety analogy is a good one.

"It is appropriate when children are young that parents teach them how to navigate the internet and use it sensibly."
An EU-wide study found 40 per cent of teenagers had been exposed to pornography online, 20 per cent had been bullied and 10 per cent had met someone in the real world who they had first met in a chatroom or a social media site.

It will mean all companies will have to clearly state on their websites what the rules are for using their site and what children can do if they see something that is offensive or shouldnt be there.