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Welcome to The Bubble Blog. Keep up-to-date on everything educational for your kids and computer… and more besides.
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Sexualisation Report Highlights Lack of Parental Control
Parents can’t stop their kids watching everything especially when they are bombarded with images from magazines, pop videos and the internet.
The inappropriate characterising of young girls by publishers and toy manufacturers that was highlighted in Linda Papadopoulos’ report on the Sexualisation of Children has got out of hand. It is clear that these unrealistic images lead to anxiety and poor self image amongst youngsters contributing to stress, eating disorders and puts pressure on their own sexual behaviour.
Parents have to sit up and take responsibility; schools should also be encouraging and educating parents that turning a blind eye will not make the problem go away. We are constantly amazed at The Learning Bubble about the amount the amount of copy generated by the media, government reports and internet safety ‘champions’ about in-home online safety for kids. Perversely, this is matched by a corresponding apathy by parents, parental school groups and retailers to do anything or make products more readily available that could help solve some of these important issues.
It is good that online safety is soon going to be taught in schools but it might not be a bad idea to run classes for parents first!
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TLB Wows Leeds Schools Technology Event
The Evolve Harnessing Technology Event sponsored by RM and held at the Queens Hotel, Leeds today was the first opportunity to showcase The Learning Bubble (TLB) to educational audiences.
Stated, Education Leeds’ e-Learning Strategy Adviser, Peter Fletcher, ‘TLB is a very timely product with the launch this week of the Government’s Internet Green Cross Code aimed primarily at parents of primary school children. In addition TLB’s emphasis on home learning fits in well with the parental engagement agenda which is another focus for schools at the moment. The product has clearly raised a lot of interest and a thirst for more knowledge.’
Appointments with a number of schools have been arranged and Education Leeds have asked TLB to undertake a presentation to their City Learning Centre staff in January 2010.
There’s been a high level of interest here in using technology to engage parents with what their children are up to in and out of school; something we at TLB have always strived towards.
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Internet Safety is Common Sense
The new Internet Green Cross Code safety advice for kids roaming the web launched with much fanfare and hand wringing in the media makes plenty of common sense. However, it is only a pity that the Government has to nanny parents into doing what any responsible adult with children should be doing as a matter of course. If you don’t keep on eye on what your children are doing then don’t be surprised if they don’t stumble over or head off themselves into the wide world of the web and all its inherent dangers that unfettered access brings.
The Learning Bubble’s own recent research study revealed that 22% parents had found their child accessing inappropriate content and a staggering 5% never monitored what their kids were watching at all! So perhaps Dr Tanya Byron and the Government are on to something after all.
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What a frightening world our kids are growing up in
Lots of media coverage at the moment (and rightly so) about online bullying to coincide with Anti Bullying Week (w/c 16 November).
Today’s stats from the charity BeatBullying make alarming reading as it seems that there is no hiding place for youngsters. Bullying has always taken place but it in the past was more likely to be confined to the school playground; however, now insidious and cruel young people are creating hate sites and saying things that they probably wouldn’t dare say face to face via social networking sites and instant messenger services on an unprecedented scale (2/3rds of the 2000 children age 11 – 18 surveyed had seen some form of online bullying!).
Parents have to take more control with both the bullies and the bullied. They should discuss openly the consequences of bullying with their kids and keep a more watchful eye on their children’s computer activities to spot any tell tale signs of abuse. Checking what your kids do on the home computer may seem like an infringement of their privacy but how would you feel if your child was responsible for causing a potentially devastating outcome or was at the receiving end of this sort of behaviour?
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Computer Shopper praises TLB’s educational links and novel time management!
Our developers were rightly chuffed with our 3 star rating in a review of parental control products in the latest edition of leading computer magazine, Computer Shopper. The Learning Bubble (TLB) received the same rating as such world-wide names as McAfee, Cyber Patrol and Kids Watch; however, the majority of the products tested alongside TLB cost twice as much and none had any learning links or games and quizzes! In fact the favourable survey did not compare apples with apples as The Learning Bubble is as much an aid to education of 5 -12 year olds as it is a parental control product.
“The Learning Bubble is ideal for young children who are starting to use the net for the first time.
It differs from most parental control software by setting three time zones. As well as Blocked Time and Free Time, there’s a learning time during which you can block games and programs that might distract your child while doing their homework.
This novel programme earns lots of points for its collection of educational sites for kids and its novel time management.”
(Computer Shopper, December issue out now)
The word is getting out as our media coverage increases and we are rolling out more free trials with both primary and private preparatory school parents. If you belong to a PTA or have children at a school who wishes to participate please contact us.
A year’s free use of TLB is available to all participating parents and a small donation will be made to the child’s school that co-operates with this trial.
Alexander McFadden, Marketing Controller, TLB
