News In The Hebden Bridge List

Calderdale Raises Awareness Of Internet Safety

Calderdale Council is taking decisive action to ensure that children and young people are kept safe when they are using the internet. Members of the Council’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel have requested that the Council provides further help and advice for parents on how they can help to tackle the problem.

Scrutiny Panel Chair, Cllr. Olwen Jennings, says the Panel has requested that Council agrees to the setting up of on-line help and advice to parents to help raise their awareness of the problem and let them know what they can do if they suspect their child is in danger.

A report to the Panel highlighted some of the measures the Council is taking to protect children when they are on-line.

It says that nationally, nearly half of all teenagers say their parents know very little or nothing about their on-line activities. It also says that 89% of sexual abuse approaches are made through either chat rooms or instant messages and a staggering four million children are posting content to the web every day.

Some of the measures already taken by the Council to help young people stay safe include:

• Development of training for over 40 schools and youth organisations contact with young people and adults to help use digital technologies safely
• Production of advice and guidance in relation to acceptable use policies and dealing with incidents
• Educational resources for schools to help increase awareness of the issue
• Providing support training and advice in relation to cyberbullying

In addition, Calderdale Council now regularly meets with partner organisations. The multi-agency e-safety group meets every six weeks and is tackling a number of key issues, among them:

• A register of internet access locations
• Formation of a consultation group of children and young people from Calderdale internet access locations
• Defining and implementing appropriate training plans to meet rapidly changing technology
• Documenting advice for schools and other establishments who may have to deal with incidents of internet/e-mail

The report says that cyberbullying is a growing problem nationally and there is a need to respond to rapidly changing forms of electronic communications.

Scrutiny Chair, Cllr Olwen Jennings, says ensuring that children and young
people are safe when they go on-line has to be a priority and Calderdale is at the forefront of some of this work.

“The Council is already doing a great deal of excellent work on this issue.
“This is an area of rapid change and we have to provide help and support to parents and we just need to be looking at how we can do even more.”