Blog – Latest stories

Anti-Bullying Week shines a spotlight on bullying and encourages all children, teachers and parents to take action against bullying throughout the year.

Anti-Bullying Week was started by the Anti-Bullying Alliance in the early 2000s as a way of focussing the attention of schools on tackling bullying between children and young people.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance consults with its members and children and young people to decide the theme each Spring. This year the theme is Power for Good.

The key aims of the 2016 campaign are:

To support children and young people to use their Power for Good – by understanding the ways in which they are powerful and encouraging individual and collective action to stop bullying and create the best world possible.

To help parents and carers to use their Power for Good – through supporting children with issues relating to bullying and working together with schools to stop bullying.

To encourage all teachers, school support staff and youth workers to use their Power for Good – by valuing the difference they can make in a child’s life, and taking individual and collective action to prevent bullying and create safe environments where children can thrive.

Anti-Bullying Week for Teachers
The aim of the campaign is not just to raise awareness of bullying for one week each year but to support teachers in preventing and responding to bullying throughout the year.

This year the Anti-bullying Alliance want every teacher, member of school staff and children's worker to know what a difference they make in children's lives. Children tell the ABA how much it means to them when teachers believe them, when they support them, and when they work with them to resolve bullying issues. For the first time the ABA have launched a Power for Good Award to celebrate those teachers and school staff that go beyond the call of duty to provide pastoral care for pupils with issues relating to bullying. The ABA want to celebrate those teachers that are changing children's lives for the better and encourage all teachers and schools staff to use their Power for Good.

How can you get involved in Anti-Bullying Week 2016?

Register for Anti-Bullying Week updates by joining the free ABA School or College Network.

Download the Anti-Bullying Week logos and share on your websites and newsletters.

Access the free Anti-Bullying Week resources including top tips.

Join the Anti-Bullying Week social media campaign.

Raise much needed funds for the work of the Anti-Bullying Alliance.

E-safety Support members can download a free Cyber Bullying assembly from their E-safety Support dashboard. If you are not a member, join free here.

Find out more at the Anti-Bullying Alliance website

Global Kids Online research confirms that the majority of children say they learn something new online at least every week, but large numbers still face risks online.

The Global Kids Online project, launched earlier this week (1st November) at the Children’s Lives in the Digital Age seminar held at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, aims to build a global network of researchers using their research toolkit to investigate the risks and opportunities of child Internet use.

Their initial research, carried out in Argentina, the Philippines, Serbia and South Africa, with support from UNICEF country offices, piloted the research toolkit, with the results being compared and combined to demonstrate both similarities and differences between countries.

The key findings of the pilot research include:

1. Children predominantly access the Internet at home and through mobile devices - Children in all four countries report that they most frequently go online at home. Access to the Internet through schools is not as common


2. The majority of children learn something new by searching the Internet - Most children who use the Internet say they learn something new online at least every week.


3. Younger Internet users lack the digital skills of their older peers - There is a clear age trend in all four countries in terms of children’s self-reported ability to check if information they find online is true.


4. Younger children’s digital safety skills also need support - Most of the older children, but fewer younger children, report knowing how to manage their privacy settings online, a key indication of their digital and safety skills.


5. A substantial minority of young Internet users have had contact with unknown people online - Between 19 per cent (in the Philippines) and 41 per cent of children (in Serbia and South Africa) have been in touch online with somebody they have not met in person.


6. Argentinian children are most likely to report having been bothered or upset online in the past year - Between a fifth (in South Africa) and three-quarters (in Argentina) of children report feeling upset about something that happened online, with older children reporting more incidents.


7. Countries vary in the amount of risks encountered and the balance with online opportunities - As many as one third of children in Serbia reported being treated in a hurtful way by their peers, online or offline, though in South Africa and the Philippines only a fifth said this had happened to them.


8. Children are most likely to seek support from a friend, and rarely from a teacher - In all four countries, the most common source of support is friends – between a third and two-thirds of children spoke to a friend the last time something upsetting happened online. Few children confided in a teacher, and the follow-up survey questions suggested that few children had received e-safety or digital literacy teaching at school.

One of the conclusions of the findings suggests that, “children are generally positive about the opportunities available for them online. However, children do not use the Internet in schools as much as expected and they generally do not see teachers as those they could confide in about what bothers them online”.

The toolkit is being made available for researchers to utilise allowing the research to be broadened globally. The project aims “to connect evidence with the ongoing international dialogue regarding policy and practical solutions for children’s well-being and rights in the digital age, especially in countries where the Internet is only recently reaching the mass market”.

More information about the project and a full copy of the pilot research findings can be found at blogs.lse.ac.uk/gko/

Get Safe Online urges people to make every day safer by treating online security as part of our everyday routines

The UK public and small businesses are today (18th October 2016) being urged to start making every day safer as the latest online crime figures from Get Safe Online and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), based only on data available from fraud and cyber crime incidents reported to Action Fraud, staggeringly reveal that up to potentially £10.9 billion was lost to the UK economy as a result of fraud, including cybercrime, in 2015/16. That equates to approximately £210 per person over the age of 16 living in the UK.

However, a specially commissioned survey to mark Get Safe Online Day, reveals that this number is likely to be much greater, with respondents who had been a victim of online crime alone losing an average of £523 each – this being more than the average weekly earnings figure for the UK which currently stands at £505. In addition, 39% of people who said they’d been victims of online crime said they hadn’t reported the incident, with the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggesting this may be as low as one-fifth of victims– this meaning that the overall amount of money lost by the UK could in fact be even more.

In addition, a quarter of (25%) respondents said that they had a limited understanding of the risks they face when going online, but nine in 10 (89%) said they were somewhat or very concerned about their online safety and security. 89% also felt online crime was as damaging or more damaging than physical crime.

The victims of cyber criminals

The research found a worrying gap in people’s understanding of what constitutes an online crime – 86% said they had not been targeted by cyber criminals in the past 12 months. But, 68% of respondents have been targeted in a variety of ways:

• 53% received fraudulent emails or messages which have attempted to direct them to websites where their personal information could have been stolen, including bank details, user names and passwords
  
• Over a quarter (28%) reported being contacted by someone who was trying to trick them into giving away personal information
  
• 10% had their email or social media accounts hacked
  
• 3% had been victims of ransomware, a fast-growing means of online extortion

Of those who said they had been a victim of cybercrime, over a third (38%) said they felt that the matter was too trivial to report. Worryingly, over a third of people (37%) also said that they felt there was nothing that could be done.

Poor online safety habits

But, many respondents are still not taking the basic steps to keep themselves safe online with as many as 43% saying that they use the same password for multiple online accounts. In fact, even when a company warns people to change their password after a breach – three in 10 have been contacted to do so – 12% said they did not follow the advice. The survey found that people use an average 9 passwords across devices and accounts.

The research also showed that respondents only update their security software every 8½ months and two in 10 (19%) do not update their device operating systems at all. When it comes to taking care of personal information, nearly a quarter (23%) said they never update their privacy settings on social media, with 58% saying they did not know how to. Additionally, nearly a third (29%) don’t back up their documents and photographs at all.

Tony Neate, Chief Executive of Get Safe Online, comments: “The fact that the UK is losing nearly £11 billion to cyber criminals is frightening and highlights the need for each and every one of us to make sure we are taking our online safety seriously. It is clear from our survey that people are very concerned, and rightly so.”

“The fact that over a third of people felt there was nothing that could have been done to stop them becoming a victim is alarming indeed – particularly when it’s so easy to protect yourself online. Also, as our research shows, people are losing large sums of money on average - £523 being the equivalent of a holiday abroad or the price of a new piece of technology in the home. As a result, it seems there is still a big education job to do. Let’s not let cyber criminals get away with it anymore by ensuring that each and every one of us is updating the operating systems of our various devices and ensuring security software is always updated. What’s more we all need to ensure that we have a different password for each online account we own and website we visit. Online safety needs to be part of our everyday routines.”

City of London Police’s Commander Chris Greany, the Police National Coordinator for Economic Crime, continued:

“The huge financial loss to cybercrime hides the often harrowing human stories that destroy lives and blights every community in the UK. All of us need to ask ourselves are we doing everything we can to protect ourselves from online criminals. Unfortunately, people still click on links in unsolicited emails and fail to update their security software. Just as you wouldn’t leave your door unlocked, so you shouldn’t leave yourself unprotected online.”

Making online safety part your everyday routine

This year’s Get Safe Online Day is encouraging everyone to start making every day safer by following a few simple steps:

• Review the passwords you use on your online accounts: Make sure they’re strong enough, following government advice of using three random words, and that you’re not using the same ones for more than one account. Consider how you’re going to remember them all – such as using an online password safe.
  
• Check your social media privacy settings. Make sure your information and updates are seen only by those you trust.
  
• Update your operating system and software programs/apps on your computer, mobile phone and tablet if you’ve been prompted to do so. It takes only a few minutes and with your mobile devices, you can even do it while you’re asleep.
  
• Back up your information – using the cloud is a great way to save all your documents, photos, music, emails and other irreplaceable files.
  
• Check that your internet security software and apps are up to date and switched on.
  
• If you have children, think about whether you’re doing enough to help ensure they’re staying safe online.
  
• If you’ve lost money report it to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre by calling 0300 123 20 40 or by visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk If you are a victim of online abuse or harassment, you should report it to your local police force.

For more information visit Get Safe Online