UK Child Internet Safety Council reports

UKCCIS Strategy Report

COJ Draft Report (November 2009)

Internet Safety Code

UKCCIS is an organisation established by and reporting to the Prime Minister, responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of a Child Internet Safety Strategy. The Council is a forum enabling Government Departments and stakeholders - including industry and the third and public sectors - to contribute jointly to the development and delivery of the strategy for Child Internet Safety. Professor Julia Davidson, CATS co-director, is a member of council's Expert Research Panel.

 

Final report on young people's internet use

Research led by prof Davidson and funded by the National Audit Office and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has been published by the NAO. The research included an online survey of 11-16 year olds (n= 1808) & focus groups (n=83) with young people in the UK. Key findings suggest that a substantial proportion of children reported having engaged in high risk  behaviour online (defined by degree to which they share information with strangers), 37%  had shared an email address; 34% provided information about the  school they attended;  23%  provided a mobile number; 26% a  personal photograph. A significant proportion said they will continue with such behaviour following Internet safety training  (particularly 13+), only 36% said Internet safety training would make them more careful online. Focus group findings indicated that interacting with strangers (i.e. adding them as ISM or Facebook friends and exchanging messages) is becoming an accepted behaviour not perceived as ‘risk-taking.

Download the full report here.

Download NAO memorandum Staying safe Online here

Media reports on the findings:

The Scotsman: online bullying affects one in five
Community Care News
MSN news portal
Kingston University News
Parental Control website
Adoption UK
Children and Young People Now
New Scotsman
Yorkshire Evening Post

 

Understanding the Process of Online Grooming and Victim Selection: the Behaviours of Men who Target Children and Young People Online

We are delighted that our European fund application on the above project has been successful. The partnership is headed by Stephen Webster at the National Centre for Social Research, together with Prof Julia Davidson at Kingston University, Prof Toni Bifulco at RHUL and partners in Oslo (Prof Gottschalk), Belgium (Prof Pham) and Italy (Prof Caretti). The grant is for €430,000 over a 30 month period to scope out the legal and policy framework in member European countries of internet abuse and to investigate profiles of online groomers and to disseminate preventative messages to schools and parents in member countries. We are grateful for our partners for their support and contribution to this success.The project will run until 2012 and is sponsered by the European Commission Safer Internet Plus Programme. (read project full press release, including notes to media editors and project contact information)

Metropolitan Police—Child Victims in the Investigative Process

An exploration of young victims experiences and perceptions of the investigative process, undertaken on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Investigation Command. The research aims to begin the process of affording young victims an opportunity to express a view regarding their treatment in, and experience of, the entire investigative process from allegation to case conclusion, focusing upon positive and negative aspects.

Specialist Homes Action Research Programme (SHARP)

St Christopher’s Fellowship has commissioned an evaluation of its Specialist Homes Action Research Programme (SHARP). This involves an enhanced assessment of the young people in the programme before and after the social learning model being implemented. The aim is to improve outcomes for young people in care.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Courses Project

Funded by West London Lifelong Learning Network, the projects is to develop CPD courses directed towards criminal justice workers, social workers, psychologists and workers in the legal professions, with the aim of covering issues around abuse and trauma, such as issues in assessment, treatment, human rights and research knowledge of victims and offenders. The courses would be integrated into a CPD Framework, which will be designed to enable a flexible learning pattern to match the needs of both qualified and non-qualified staff.

South West London Academic network – Interprofessional Institute (Health and Social Care) (SWAN-IPI)

CATS is happy to announce a successful Starter Grant application for a series of research seminars, workshops and literature search, with the aim of  preparing for a research grant application in 2010. The research will take place across the three university sites, utilising the Health and Social Care (RHUL - Antonia Bifulco), Criminology & Sociology (KU - Julia Davidson) and Mental Health (SGUL - Gill Mezzey) departments. The aim will be to focus the application on multidisciplinary working around issues of abuse and trauma in perpetrators of violent or sexual offending with implications for identification of risk to benefit services and influence social policy. Innovative research methods combining qualitative and quantitative approaches are planned. Other outputs include the seminar presentations to be available for Workshops for practitioners in the CATS CPD courses, and a brief literature review. The research will cover key questions and approaches needed for ground breaking research in this area: Lifespan approaches to offender risk profiles
It is hoped that understanding perpetrators interpersonal styles and relating problems may provide part of the picture in identifying linkages to particular types of offending behaviour. Such information can also inform likely cooperation with treatment.Service provision
Other issues to be scoped and discussed in the seminar and workshops include service provision and treatment for offenders and international good treatment practice with different sex offender groups, including those using the Internet to collect indecent images of children and to groom young people for the purposes of abuse. Parallels and differences with other types of offending will be outlined.Public understanding and dissemination
A key issue around serious offending is public understanding of issues, particularly sensitive in the area of sex offenders. Whilst there is undoubtedly a need to develop effective risk assessment, management and treatment practices, recent policy initiatives have occurred against a backdrop of media hype surrounding key cases and public anxiety regarding sexual abuse and the placement of sexual offenders in the community It is a priority to retain a balanced, research based approach to the development of policy, management and treatment strategies that considers both risk and offender need, in order to foster reintegration into society rather than marginalisation, isolation and the possibility of further offending.Seminars and workshops
The three seminars will all be both led and contributed to by the three project leaders to represent the psychosocial, criminological and psychiatric facets. The lead for each session will be rotated in line with the location of the seminar.

1. Scoping and reviewing the area of offender/perpetrator behaviour and profile (particular emphasis upon Internet sex offenders)
Lead Prof Julia Davidson held at Kingston University (autumn term 2009). Workshop – outlining some key areas needing further investigation around Internet sexual offending; risk indicators; treatment /reoffending issues and public dissemination around risk and safety. 2. Measurement issues in abuse and trauma lifespan causes in offenders/perpetrators
Lead Prof Toni Bifulco held at Lifespan Research Group, RHUL (Bedford Square) (late autumn term 2009). Workshop – outlining measures for research investigation. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches for perpetrators and service providers.

3. Samples, services and interventions for offenders/perpetrators
Lead Dr Gill Mezey held at SGUL (Spring 2010). Workshop – how to select appropriate individuals for study; identifying services which need evaluation or interventions to be tested. Encompassing psychiatric and criminal justice services.

Individualised provision of courses
Coherent ‘menu’ of courses offered by CATS - download pdf version of CATS workshops flyer