Warwickshire News Mine

Professor Byron, leading clinical psychologist and BBC series presenter of Little Angels and The House of Tiny Tearaways joined Warwickshire County Council officials and schoolchildren at Woodloes Junior School in Warwick to officially unveil the pioneering software.

Warwickshire County Council is giving the opportunity for all parents of 80,000 school age children a free e-safety product for in-home use which protects PCs from the many dangers of the internet such as cyberbullying and chat room predators. CyberSentinel is made by Forensic Software Limited and already used in county schools. The software is downloaded from the internet and details of how to do this are available from the county council’s website http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/ictds

Professor Byron, along with Dr Vic Tuck, Warwickshire Safeguarding Children’s Board Development Manager, and John Parmiter, the county council’s Head of ICT Development, made presentations to 60 headteachers and school governors about e-safety.

Professor Byron, who presented the Government with an independent review into e-safety, said: “One year on from the Byron Review, it is great to see local authorities such as Warwickshire taking the initiative when it comes to e-safety. I especially commend Warwickshire County Council for having taken the lead in e-safety by being among the first in the UK to bridge the gap between schools and parents so that children can use the internet in safety. As a parent myself, I imagine that this news will come as welcome relief to parents throughout the county.”

“Technology and the web are very much part of our children’s present and future and we should be giving children the opportunity to safely develop their learning, communicating and playing online. However for many parents, navigating the web is like learning a foreign language and parents tend to have a lack of understanding of both the opportunities and possible risks that the internet presents. Children still need to be protected from harm and helped to learn how to assess and manage risk in the online world as we do for them in the ‘real’ world - to allow them to grow and explore in safety.”
Professor Byron published an independent review of the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games. She has since worked to develop a cross-Government action plan setting out how the recommendations of the Byron Review will be implemented.

The home software is just one aspect of Warwickshire County Council’s strategy to make the internet safe for children, young people and families.

The county council’s Family Information Service has published an additional guidebook for parents called Surfing Safely – Your Family’s Guide to Internet Safety.

John Parmiter, Warwickshire County Council’s Head of ICT Development, said: “Our main priorities this year are to raise standards in both encouraging internet usage and safeguarding children online. Professor Byron is the leading light in the field of e-safety and we are delighted that she has recognised the good work we are doing here in Warwickshire.

“Warwickshire County Council prides itself on having stringent e-safety protection in its schools and this home software is an extension of the existing measures we have in place. The message we want to send out to parents is that this product gives them that all-important peace of mind while allowing children to enjoy exploring the internet safely.”

Forensic Software’s e-safety software Policy Central Enterprise (PCE) is already used in 250 county schools.

CyberSentinel recognises and monitors keywords that signal danger, providing extra protection for instant messaging, chat rooms, social networks and other sites. It is the first time a product has offered protection spanning subjects such as cyberbullying, pornography, gambling, suicide, self-harm and grooming

Parents can control the software remotely from any computer, specify their own settings and see what their children are doing online. It blocks inappropriate internet sites, checks outgoing and incoming information and detects any problem immediately.

According to recent research carried out by CyberSentinel, 76 per cent of parents admit regularly leaving their children – some as young as five-years-old – alone to surf the internet. More than 51 per cent of parents are worried about their child using unsuitable websites.

Link to WCC