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Thousands of digitastic families set to descend on the Digital Kids Show this October half term at EventCity, Manchester

On October 29th & 30th, thousands of Minecraft, gaming, YouTube loving children and parents will gather at EventCity for a day out like no other. Split across five zones, the event will showcase an unrivalled array of events and activities all included in the ticket price, making it one of the best value days out of the year.

There’s an awesome selection of child friendly games including a 40 Player MINECRAFT Hub, Gaming Bus, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Retro Gaming and the latest Virtual Reality to keep fans of all things futuristic entertained.

Dads will love the Ferrari F1 Simulator and Bandai Namco’s Project Cards on Oculus Rift will bring out the Lewis Hamilton in anyone! There are prizes for the fastest lap in the next generation Scalextric Arc Air family tournament and if that’s not enough car action, 5 -17 year olds can take part in driving lessons in REAL cars – great fun and an amazing way to instil road safety from an early age.

Everyone dreams of launching the next big thing and if you are a budding app inventor or engineer then this is the show for you. The show has lots of activities to ignite the imagination and parents can get involved with kids as they get creative with robots, coding workshops and STEM toys and prepare them to be wowed by the cool Science Shows in our purpose built Explorer Dome.

E-Safety and Anti-Bullying workshops from the Diana Award and Internet Matters are an essential part of the show to help you keep your kids safe online and inspire them to be responsible digital citizens. Meet our friends from YouTube Kids and CBBC who’ve got some awesome surprises for our Digital Kids.

The Digital Kids Show also features some of the UK’s biggest YouTubers including LDShadowLady, AmyLee33, Ashdubh, Tomohawk, SmallishBeans & EthanGamerTV amongst others. They will be doing Meet & Greets and live shows on the stage. They will be joined by CBBC favourites Dick & Dom and BGT Finalists Mythical PSM and Boogie Storm!

Commenting on the event Aisha Tilstone said: “The Digital Kids Show is set to be the highlight of the October half term. We have everything every gamer needs to know right now and an insight from some of the industry’s leading lights. Even if gaming isn’t your thing it’s set to be an amazing day out for all the family. There’s so much on offer for everyone and the leading Minecraft players are sure to be a hit as they will be meeting fans and telling them all about the secret of their success. There is also an underlying message of Internet safety with a specific zone dedicated to it. This comes on the back of a recent report from OFCOM* which highlighted that there has been a fall 2015-2014 from 83% to 78% in the number of parents who trust their children to use the internet safely.”

The Digital Kids Show will be taking place 29th and 30th October at Event City. Visit www.digitalkidsshow.co.uk to find out more.

Saturday 8th-Saturday 15th October 2016

17-24-30 was set up in 2009 by Mark Healey and Ryan Parkins following the London bombings in 1999 so that we would never forget the 139 people who were killed or injured. National Hate Crime Awareness Week has since become a focus each year for individuals and organisations, large and small, to show their commitment to stopping hate.

The week’s aim is to encourage all of us including local authorities, local councils and local police services to work together with communities affected by Hate Crime across the UK to stage Hate Crime awareness events to promote a message of HOPE.

The acronym HOPE stands for:

The week begins on Saturday 8th October with a service of Hope and Remembrance at St. Paul’s Cathedral, to remember all those who have lost their lives because of Hate Crime and all those who have been affected by it.

During the week various events and initiatives will be held throughout the country by charitable and voluntary organisations, statutory agencies such as the police, police and crime commissioners, local authorities – and many others. Through information stalls, campaigns and social media these agencies will be working together to raise awareness about the different ways to report Hate Crime and the support services that exist to help those who are affected. You can see the Guide to holding your own event by clicking here

Rose Simkins, Chief Executive of Stop Hate UK said:

“National Hate Crime Awareness Week is always a wonderful event, as it sees so many organisations working together to raise awareness about Hate Crime. Hate Crime across all monitored strands – disability, faith, gender identity, race and sexual orientation is a much under-reported crime. It’s important that we all continue to work together to ensure that those people who have been impacted by Hate Crime know where and how they can access support and the different options available to them. We want to see all perpetrators brought to justice and our communities made safer.”

We hope as many people as possible participate in National Hate Crime Awareness Week. Keep looking for #NHCAW right across social media.

UKCCIS Report: Responding to incidents and safeguarding young people

Many children and young people send inappropriate images as they see it as a form of ‘flirting’. Many do not realise that it is against the law to create, send and share indecent images of a person under the age of 18. The danger is that these images will be harnessed by adults and once they are in the possession of unscrupulous individuals, young people could be coerced into sending more images.

The 61 page document looks at the criteria that schools or colleges need to consider before making a referral to the police or social care about an incident. The guidance has been written in consultation with a number of agencies including the National Police Chiefs Council and Department of Education. The aim of the guidance is to support the Designated Safeguarding Leads(DSL) in their decision making when dealing with a YPSI incident. In recent months a number of police forces have highlighted concerns of schools referring incidents which do not constitute a police investigation.

In brief, the key points of the guidance are:

• Any YPSI incident in a school should be treated as a safeguarding issue.
  
  
• Schools may respond to a YPSI incident without involving the police.

• Criminal justice response should only be considered proportionate in certain circumstances.

• All police forces have a new charging code (‘Outcome 21’) which can be used for YPSI incidents. This new code is intended not to criminalise young people, especially if they are involved in a minor YPSI incident. The reasoning behind this, is that if they want to work with children, it will not show up on a DBS check.

• In the majority of cases, parents should be informed of their child being involved in a YPSI incident.

• Schools should update their policies and procedures in light of the new guidance

• ALL staff should receive training related to the YPSI guidance.

• In the vast majority of cases, staff should not view any YPSI images/video and delete them from a young persons smartphone.

The guidance offers information for schools on teaching about ‘sexting’ in the curriculum and has links to different resources which can be incorporated into PHSE schemes of work. In addition, there are sample questions that can be used with young people involved in YPSI incidents. The guidance also provides information for schools and colleges on appropriate measures for deleting ‘indecent’ images and ways in which to talk to students involved in a YPSI incident.

The guidance is important for primary, secondary and post 16 settings and DSL’s need to look at updating their policies and training staff on the new guidance and should use it in conjunction with the updated ‘Keeping Children Safe In Education’.

The full report can be downloaded here

E-safety Support Premium Plus members can access resources on Sexting and SRE from their dashboard. Additional resources on Healthy Relationships can be obtained from our sister site - Teaching Resources Support,

This article was written by E-safety Consultant, Tim Pinto, who is currently running a series of YPSI Briefings around the Yorkshire region. To find out more, visit www.esafetyoffice.co.uk