Munch Poke Ping – New website for Pupil Referral Units teaching staff.

Tuesday 7th Feb was Safer Internet Day (#SID2012) this year’s theme was ‘Connecting generations and educating each other’, and the slogan “Discover the digital World together…safely!”

Beat Bullying have just released “Virtual Violence II: Progress and Challenges in the Fight against Cyberbullying” commissioned by Nominet Trust and in collaboration with the National Association of Head Teachers. It will be unveiled in a hard-hitting Panorama documentary which aired on the BBC (Monday 6th Feb) and reveals that cyberbullying, as a weapon of choice amongst the nation’s youth, is showing no signs of dissipating, with 350,222 children – or 1 in 13 – experiencing persistent and intentional cyberbullying, with just under a quarter (23%) reporting that the bullying lasted for a year or more, and two in five (40%) said that it lasted for months or weeks. If you missed the Panorama report check it out online on BCCiPlayer.

My contrubtion to SID was to support and help Stephn Carrick-Davies on creating complemtary acivity session plans to be used in conjunction with the newly created Munch, Poke, Ping films. These films explore how social media and mobile phone technology affects young people’s peer relationships, behaviour and identity and how they cope when there is conflict online.

The project works directly with young people who are, or who feel, excluded and uses film-making to help ‘unlock’ and explore young people’s experience of growing up online. All the films on this website have been devised and acted by young people who have been excluded from main-stream schools and being taught in Pupil Referral Units.

When developing, delivering & evaluating E-safety messages and activities consider the following:

RELEVANCY It is important to identify the understanding and young people’s experiences specifically on internet safety. Be considerate and initially explore issues about sharing photos (consent to post images & images appropriate to be posted) experiences of online cyber bullying. If you haven’t run a session with young people about cyberbullying there are some excellent resources designed specifically for secondary schools see www.digizen.org, http://cybermentors.org.uk and http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk Start from the relatively ‘low impact, high incidence’ risks as this may be more productive than starting from ‘high impact, low incidence’ risks.

REALISTIC – Asking young people not to tag themselves on any photos on a social network site is highly unlikely. Be realistic, instead safety messages should focus on supporting young people to think critically about what and with whom they share photos or comments with online. Social network sites do offer privacy and account settings options, however, they can be complex. Break down the information into ‘bite-size’ sections i.e. sharing personal information, photos security settings, posting messages etc.

POSITIVE – Activities and advice based on fear can have unintended consequences and negative impacts upon young people’s use of social media. It is important that safety messages and interventions are delivered in a balanced manner which encourages and supports young people to consider the positive and negative aspects of online social networking. Often a focus on the positive aspects of SNS will provide an opportunity to talk about safety and sensible conduct.