Posts tagged Keep Children Safe
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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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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?
