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The RDI and Child Internet Safety, both North West companies who are passionate about online child safety, recently joined forces.

The partnership is about raising the profile of safety of children whilst out and about via the Friendly WiFi Scheme and to communicate details of the scheme to parents and the educational sector. The announcement of the partnership also coincided with the launch of the Child Internet Safety magazine.

The Child Internet Safety magazine is free of charge, and provides an ideal reference point, with focus on everything from social media, gaming, e-commerce, internet access, internet footprint and identity, to e-safety, content filtering, and mobile devices. The information gathered together means families can celebrate the amazing resources found online and via connected devices - whilst also being well aware of all the hidden digital dangers.

Aisha Tilstone, Founder and Publisher at Child Internet Safety comments “Every child is now born into a digitally enabled world and we’re all, collectively, still learning about the benefits, and the dangers. Children are at the forefront of that, because their natural tendency to explore, communicate, and break down barriers is amplified online; any mistakes can have far-reaching consequences.”

Ed Vaizey, Minister for the Digital Economy, said: “The Friendly WiFi and Child Internet Safety partnership will make clear to parents which cafes, restaurants and other businesses have internet access that is safe for their children to use. It will help these firms ensure that families feel comfortable and make it clear to parents they are choosing a safe online environment. It will also allow parents to access the Child Internet Safety magazine, which will help show families how to stay safe online.

“This shows that businesses are responding to Government’s call to think about how they can help parents protect their children from inappropriate content online.”

To download your free copy of the Child Internet Safety magazine, please visit www.childinternetsafety.co.uk.

The rise of communications technology has been fast. For many it arrived fully formed and e-safety is often an attempt to retro fit conventions after the fact. We can not put the genie back into the lamp and it is pointless to stick an Elastoplast over the spout, so somehow we need our understanding to catch-up with reality.

We are delighted to announce that we will be discussing this issue when we speak at Bett next week.

We have joined up with Exa Education - the UK's leading independent Internet Service Provider to schools, who are hosting a number of presentations on their stand. With seminars ranging from need-to-know e-safety advice to teaching computing in 2015, there's something for everyone!

In the E-safety Support presentation, we will illustrate three basic principles underpinning Internet technology and its usage which will equip you to not only understand e-safety today, but also to continue to understand it as the technology evolves.

Be sure to come along to stand B228 at 4pm on Wednesday 21st or 12 noon on Thursday 22nd to hear the presentation.

For those not able to attend Bett, we will be featuring the full presentation in a blog soon.

A timetable of the Exa seminars can be found on their Facebook page.

If you would like to meet a member of the E-safety Support team at Bett, please get in touch using the comments section below.

Last month, the Government made 2 significant announcements that related to e-safety issues. The latest announcement made on Boxing Day reiterated the need for education and parental support in keeping children safe online. Here is a brief summary of the developments.

On 11th December, David Cameron announced measures that aim to protect young people from online predators. Speaking at the We Protect Children Online summit, he presented 3 strategies to help at-risk children including; blocking internet search terms; identifying illegal images and; global child protection and laws.

Further information about this story can be found in our e-safety blog

On 26th December, Nicky Morgan announced further moves to help protect children, by reaching out to parents, encouraging them to use the new whole home parental controls - introduced by the government - as well as online resources such as ParentPort and Internet Matters to help keep their children safe online. In her speech she is quoted as saying:

"From my conversations with parents I know how worried parents are about keeping their children safe online."

"But this isn’t just a problem for parents, schools have a role to play too, which is why we have put online safety at the heart of the curriculum and I am delighted to announce extra funding to ensure children are given the information and tools they need to protect themselves online."

To support this, the additional funding of £500,000 will be given to the Safer Internet Centre, to ensure schools and teachers are also equipped to teach our young people about how to be safe online. The money will provide advice for schools, alongside: