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!

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.

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.

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?

Here at TLB we recognize that this happens, and that’s why we created TLB Learning Time. We think parents (and their children) will quickly see just how useful it can be. As we said previously, our survey of 300 parents found that 65% of parents want to help block “instant messaging” applications and “social networking” websites. Added to this about the same number of parents (60%) would really like to be able to set specific times for when their children are using the PC for getting things done, and when they can use the PC for more leisurely activities.

During a child scheduled Learning Time they can only visit websites which have been selected by Primary School teachers as being excellent resources for your child’s learning, or websites which you as a parent have deemed suitable for your children.

Added to this, while learning your child can only run the programs you have allowed them to. This is a great way of letting your child use the PC for their homework without having to nag them to get off of Facebook, or to stop playing Solitaire when they should be learning about Vikings.