New web site for kids

[dack]

So you can't communicate outside your own school ? Good for security, not so good for functionality.

What is your policy on collecting data for pupils under the age of 13 ?

You will be holding children's details, presumably in a database, so are your staff CRB checked ? Do you have the necessary security arrangements in place to prevent misuse ?

Also, have you discussed the arrangements with the LEA's, the DfES and others ?

Fair point, but that's the price of security. If the site does take off then we may introduce the option of cross school forums, etc.

The only personal details held are an email address for which we're registerd with the DPA.

Don't have any staff, just me (and the wife)! DB access is password protected.

And finally, nope have approached LEA yet.

Cheers for your points, much appreciated.

[Ardesco]

You and your wife will count as staff then...

[dack]

Thanks folks, appreciate all the comments. I knew I could rely on fellow contractors to pick holes, that's what I needed.

This time next year....

[DaveB]

I disagree, forums & chat rooms are changing. Derrogative comments can land individuals in trouble. People (and kifds) are more careful with what they say 'electronically' as it can sometimes have consequences.

In my experience with a 15 year old son and his friends, they are being more carefull about what they do and say online. That doesn't mean they want or would be happy with parents / teachers moderating or monitoring them. I offered to set up a chat room for them on one of my home servers but they turned it down specifically because of the anonymity they have online to anyone they don't specifically reveal their identity to.

You are also overlooking the social networking that goes on amongst teenage kids. Yes they talk to the people they know at school but they also have extensive networks of contacts with many others who are not at their school. My sons MSN contacts list runs to around 150 individuals atm many of them overseas. Only a dozen or so actually go to his school and he is not unusual in this. Contacts lists are swapped regularly within their community.

They are also self policing to a degree. Dodgy characters are identified and other contacts warned about them. These kids are well aware of the dangers and they look out for eachother.

The problems start when parents dont know what their kids are doing or don't care. The excuse you hear all to often is that parents didn't understand what their kids were doing. It's not hard to do and it's not difficult to find somewhere to learn. Try the local library for a start. The only way to solve these problems properly is good parenting. Although the occasional subterfuge comes in handy as well.

[oraclesmith]

OK, there are a few things you need to bear in mind.

1. Schools are going to be very cautious about this. By registering their schools on the site you are effectively going to be asking them to endorse the use of the site by their pupils. So they will need to know exactly how it works, how you meet the requirements of the various Acts, what security and checking you have in place and so on. In particular , they will need to know that their LEA is OK with it. With free chatrooms which pupils may or may not use in their own time, on the other hand, there is no responsibility on the school and no danger to them if things go wrong.

2. Although you are only storing an e-mail address, the child may be identifiable through (a) their various postings (b) their parents credit card details (c) their friends postings (d) their school details.

3. Most CP practitioners would be concerned about the extent to which you access to the data yourself and would need your background and motivations to be checked. It would be possible, for example, for you to register fake IDs on your own site in order to secure personal contacts with children.

4. You need at least to be able to identify children under the age of 13 because you need parental consent to hold their details. This means collecting age data, however trivial, and putting into place some process for positively identifying parents/guardians and securing their permission.

5. If it is possible to identify a child from on the database, their postings will reveal a lot about their location, habits, friends, sexuality, family life, emotions and so on. This is information which schools and LEA's will require that you hold securely with very tight restrictions on access if they are to in any way allow their schools to register on the scheme. In my opinion.

6. With a school and child centered service such as this, you will need to be up on LEA requirements and the various Acts governing work with children and the recording of child data and so on. The LEA's may not be confident enough to go ahead and so will defer to the DfES, in which case if they reject then the whole idea is down the pan. You really should have gone consulting before you invested any money in this idea. Because you are focussing on children, you may, for example, be required to monitor posts for CP issues and report them to the appropriate CP authorities. The general free sites don't worry about this because they are not claiming to be secure, accept truly anonymous registrations, are not focussed at children or endorsed by schools.

Sorry to put a damper on your ideas, but I do have experience of this area.