UKCCIS 2nd Annual Summit
– Industry, government and charities commit to helping children stay safe online
– Dixons Retail Plc commit to in-store promotion of ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’ campaign
Mobile phone companies, social networking providers and children’s charities will show their commitment to help children stay safe online today (Tuesday 14 June) at the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) 2nd Annual Summit.
The Summit will bring together industry, government and charities to discuss ground-breaking new technologies designed to protect children and share best practice.
At the summit Dixons Retail Plc, parent company of Currys, PC World, Dixons.co.uk and PIXmania.com, will announce their commitment to support the UK Council for Child Internet Safety ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’ campaign through in-store rolling demos, flyers, and on receipt wallets.
The Click Clever Click Safe campaign is designed to give parents the confidence to help their children enjoy the internet safely and to help children and young people understand how their online experiences can expose them to risks. The Click Clever Click Safe Code has been created with three simple, memorable actions: ‘Zip it, Block it, and Flag it’. ‘Zip It’ is about keeping personal stuff private. ‘Block It’ is about blocking people who send nasty messages, and ‘Flag It’ is about helping children to flag up with someone they trust if anything upsets them online, or someone asks to meet them offline.
Three Government Ministers from the Department for Education, the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will be urging delegates at the event to do even more to ensure that children get the best out of the internet whilst staying safe online.
Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said: “New technology has an amazing ability to educate and entertain, but it also has the ability to expose children to danger. It’s unrealistic to expect parents to take on all of the responsibility for making sure their children are safe online, industry and retailers have a part to play in helping to keep families safe online.
“That is why I welcome Reg Bailey’s recommendations, to make it easier for parents to block adult material on the internet, in his review into the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood. This review is a real opportunity for the IT industry to act decisively to develop effective parental controls, so that they are simple enough for the average busy parent to use.
“Through UKCCIS industry have already started to act and I’m delighted that Dixons are going to promote the ‘Click Clever Click Safe’ campaign so widely to their customers, through all their PC World and Curry’s stores, through in-store promotion and on till receipts. It is also excellent news that BT, Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk have been working together on a new code of practice designed to give parents more control over the kind of material their children are able to download. I commend the responsible actions of all UKCCIS members to promote online safety and I look forward to continuing to work with industry to support parents and protect children.”
Minister for Crime and Security and Co-Chair of UKCCIS James Brokenshire said: “We want children and young people to enjoy the internet but we know they can also be vulnerable to harmful or inappropriate content.
“We want to help protect children from abuse and harm online but it isn’t something we can do on our own. Industry, parents and government need to work together to achieve this, which is why the work of UKCCIS is so important in driving forward innovation and change.
“I would like to thank UKCCIS for all the work already underway and encourage members and their organisations to work together to look at what more we can do to help develop the information and tools that are needed to move on to the next stage. If we can achieve this together, we will have made great strides towards improving the protection of children on the internet.”
NSPCC Director of Child Protection Consultancy and UKCCIS Summit Chair John Grounds said: “This is a unique opportunity for key organisations to give children the tools and information they need to stay safe online. Child safety is everyone’s responsibility and everyone can play a part in making a difference to children’s experiences of the online environment”
Summit highlights will include:
· Keynote address from Bill Thompson, technology critic and commentator on digital culture.
· Panel discussion chaired by Professor Tanya Byron, clinical psychologist, whose original review led to the creation of UKCCIS in 2008.
· Panellists and speakers include Will Gardner (Childnet), Matthew Lambert (Microsoft), Sonia Livingston (LSE), Christopher Woolard (Ofcom), Deidre Sanders (agony aunt, The Sun).
Ofcom’s Media Literacy Tracker 2010 shows one third (34%) of 8 to12-year-old home internet users say they have a profile on social networking sites intended for those aged over 13.
Of children who use the internet at home,
· 22% of 12 -15s say that they would be happy to give out their email address online,
· 12% of 8 – 15s say they forget about the safety rules when online, and
· 10% of 8 – 15s say that they wouldn’t tell anyone if they saw something worrying, nasty or offensive online.
The NSPCC is organising the 2nd Annual Summit on behalf of UKCCIS at the BT Centre in London.
For more information: Alex Stevenson, NSPCC media office, 020 7825 2602
