A Mother Warns: "Be aware of the online dangers that children face."

The mother of a young girl abused by a teacher over MSN Messenger warned parents:

"Be aware of the online dangers that children face." 

The stark warning came as Ian Goy, of Thornton Clevelys, Lancashire, was jailed for 26 weeks for 'inciting an under-age girl to engage in sexual activitity, whilst in a position of trust'.  Goy had denied the charge but was found guilty by a jury in less than 3 hours.

Social networking ‘campaigns’ – a force for good or evil?

The Lighter Side

Most UK readers will be aware of the runaway success of a Facebook campaign to deprive Joe McElderry, this year’s winner of TV talent contest The X Factor, of their seemingly-compulsory Christmas Number 1.  For the last five years the winner of the X Factor has been guaranteed the top position in the chart at Christmastime. 

The Facebook campaign encourages people to buy the 1992 protest song ‘Killing In The Name’ by Rage Against The Machine instead of Joe’s single as a form of protest against the glossy, slick talent show and it’s musical output.  Donations, and profits from the sale of Rage Against The Machine’s single, are being donated to charities.

As of the Midweek chart, Rage Against The Machine are leading McElderry by several hundred thousand sales, and the campaign seems to be a runaway success.

This is just one example of the ‘people power’ of social networking sites, where a spontaneous movement can turn into an organised campaign in hours, and give a voice to thousands of people.

The ‘Rage Against The Machine’ Facebook campaign is clearly relatively light-hearted, but ‘people power’ on social network sites can have a much darker side…

MSN Messenger: Most common method of "CyberBullying"?

In a recent report by the charity BeatBullying, MSN Messenger (recently renamed "Windows Live Messenger") was revealed as the most common conduit for "Cyber Bullies" on the internet.  MSN Messenger is a type of software classified as "Instant Messaging" software whereby, as the name suggests, short messages can be exchanged instantly between users. 

MSN Messenger is a very common piece of software, as it comes pre-installed on all new Windows computers and is therefore instantly available for use.  In addition, it can also be found on some games consoles (such as Microsoft's Xbox 360) and modern mobile phones.