Mind the Gap and Facebook Stole My Childhood

Many of us working with children and young people will be in Sheffield this week at the The Children's Media Conference. I’m talking there alongside children’s digital whizz David Squire from DESQ about meeting the media needs of early adolescents. Our session Mind the Gap will be on Thursday at 2-3pm and again on Friday at 12.45 – 1.30 pm. In this David and I explore who early adolescents (10-14 14 year olds) are and what they need, and why we think there is a gap in media provision for this age group. Our paper outlining our thoughts is now available.

I’ll also be taking part in the panel discussion Facebook Stole My Childhood chaired by Jo Twist, Commissioning Editor for Education, Channel 4. This session takes place on Thursday at 3.30-4.30 pm. While my research has shown that there can be dangers for children on-line, including exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying and on-line predators, overall children can benefit from their digital social networking.

As the Bailey Review published last month pointed out, children do need to be protected in their digital world, just as they do in the real world. It is a welcome move therefore that internet service provider Talk Talk has enabled its customers to use a network-level security service which is designed in particular to help parents protect their children from harmful content on the Internet such as viruses. Unlike anti-virus or parental control software on individual machines, this tool protects anyone using the same Internet connection, and thus helps to block inappropriate content even if it’s being browsed from a games console, mobile phone or tablet. Its KidsSafe parental controls allows the account-holder to block porn, violence, and other content. There is also a Homework Time option that allows parents/carers to block sites such as Facebook at certain times. It is an interesting move and one no doubt that will be soon followed by other service providers.

Concern continues to mount about children’s access to online content, and as I wrote last month our new research Digital Kids and Youth will explore many of these issues.