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 How can you tell what your child is up to online?’ That was a question asked to NWLLA centre manager Elizabeth McNerlin, at an Extended Schools Conference held in the Limavady Borough last year. It was a question echoed by several delegates at the conference, themselves not only educational professionals but many concerned parents at their children’s activities online.
This prompted NWLLA’s Online Services Manager Peter Boyle to look at Internet Safety and how it could be brought to the forefront of issues which affect the local community. Peter says: ‘the brief was simple – to promote safety while online, the most worrying aspect of the entire project was the scope. We are not just aiming this programme solely at one group of people but want to engage as many groups as possible throughout the lifespan of the programme.’
‘This led us in two specific directions. Not only did we want to see what resources were already available to help us in deciding if we needed to prepare our own. We also wanted to see if any educational programmes similar to what we wanted to achieve existed either in Northern Ireland or the UK . We approached social networking website Bebo and told them what our idea was. They said they would gladly support us. After approaching Awards for All and, with Bebo’s help we secured funding to get the project started.”
“Through our partnership with Bebo we started to gather information and data to help us formulate resources. This led us down the route of CEOP.” (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. That means we are part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.)
Peter continues: “CEOP have helped us to focus our efforts in online education. In a project partly funded by the European Union called EMPOWER. Through the EMPOWER Project they have developed a range of online and offline resources to promote safety while online. These resources are aimed specifically at 5 key groups:
- 5 - 7 year olds (Key Stage 1)
- 8 – 10 year olds (Key Stage 2)
- 11 – 16 year olds (Key Stage 3)
- Parents/Cares
- Educational Professionals/teachers
After training in London in late 2008 two NWLLA staff members were awarded the role of CEOP Ambassadors and given the task of training in Northern Ireland on their behalf.
Anybody wishing to find out more about the N.O.I.S.E programme can contact Peter Boyle or Jo Carlin at Northwest Lifelong Learning Association, 63 Irish Green Street, Limavady, Co Derry . BT49 9AA Tel: 02877764429/67737 or e-mail info@nwlla.info
www.nwlla1.bebo.com
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