PRESS RELEASE
14th November 2007
For immediate release
In particular, they felt that such dialogue was needed to create the foundation for putting in place a system that would ensure the protection of children online while safeguarding the freedom of expression.
PRESS RELEASE
13th November 2007
For immediate release
CHILD PROTECTION ORGANISATIONS CALL FOR GREATER DIALOGUE WITH FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ADVOCATES AT IGF TO ESTABLISH COLLABORATIVE ACTION ON CHILD PROTECTION.
Following on from the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon statement of the importance of protecting children online at the inaugural session of the second IGF in Rio, [i] members of child protection organisations present have been active in contributing to the sessions of the Forum, demonstrating a range of ways in which various stakeholders can take practical steps to better protect children under the issue of internet governance.
Today, at the IGF workshops on protecting children against sexual exploitation through ICTs children’s organizations regretted that so few industry representatives and freedom of expression advocates were present. One representative from the industry underscored the need for face to face open dialogue around the regulatory measures being undertaken and proposed for child protection and the imperative to protect freedom of expression.
The workshops highlighted the work of NGOs and their collaboration with industry and government concerning online child safety. Increasingly NGOs are working with industry to develop self-regulatory frameworks which respond to public concerns regarding the risks and harms experienced by children in the online environment. However such initiatives appear to be limited to a few developed countries and only a small number of industry stakeholders. This signals that the value of such partnerships in shaping policies and programmes has yet to be recognized if the global challenge to end the exploitation of children through information and communication technologies is to be met.
David Butt, an ECPAT Board member and legal expert on child abuse cases says,
“The broad consensus across civil society, industry and government on the need to protect children from sexual exploitation online is of paramount importance. It provides a great opportunity for progress, but the challenge is for all sectors to build on this consensus constructively and comprehensively.”
John Carr the Chair and spokesperson for Children’s Charities in the
“There is no necessary contradiction between the desire to protect children online and the desire to protect free speech online”
Margaret Moran a member of Parliament in the
END
[i] “One particular area of hope, but also concern, is the relationship of children and young people with the Internet. The Internet has opened new doors to them, to knowledge and culture. Yet, it can also present a threat to their safety. The program of this year’s meeting has a strong focus on the protection of children. And I hope that it will contribute to making them safer.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon statement of the importance of protecting chidren oline at the inaugural session of the second IGF in
As a representative of EU Kids Online, I am participating in Child Safety Online group at IGF. We produced the following press release:
********************************************************************************************************
PRESS RELEASE
12th November 2007
For immediate release
CHILD PROTECTION ORGANISATIONS WELCOME UN SECRETARY GENERAL’S STATEMENT OF THE UN’s COMMITMENT TO CHILD ONLINE SAFETY AT IGF IN RIO.
Representatives from a number of leading Child Protection organisations meeting at the Internet Governance Forum in
Members of child protection organisations working towards online child protection in very many parts of the world are addressing the very real online safety issues for young people. Members are contributing to a number of key sessions at the IGF meeting including;
The groups recognise the enormous value of the Internet has for children and young people but are increasingly seeing at first hand how children and young people are at risk from inappropriate contact, content and excessive commercialism online.
John Carr one of the members of the group representing children’s charities in the
Stephen Balkam CEO of the FOSI (Family Online Safety Institute) in Washington says, “We are increasingly recognising the shared responsibility we all have for ensuring that children can use the internet and mobile services safely. Education in school and for parents is crucial but this has to be complimented by better tools and services from industry players as well as appropriate government oversight .”
Carmen Madrinan CEO from ECPAT
“Whilst we welcome the recognition of the importance of child protection online, we need to ensure that we go beyond words and realise the practical implications for protecting children’s rights and providing safer environments and secure services for young people online. It is crucial that the voice of the Child is consistently heard.”
END
******************************************************************************************************
At the moment I am sitting at the IGF, in between two very interesting workshops, titled Measures to Prevent and Fight Child Pornography on the Internet: Strategies for Developing countries and Protecting Children from Sexual Exploatation through ICTs.
More later ….
Over a month since my last post … my readers try to warn me that this is a one way ticket to Con Brio-disappearance from a blogosphare.
Well, no. Just a bit of a quiet period;)
Right now, I am attending a CAQDAS conference at Royal Holloway University of London in Egham. Great old building, nice people and my dear Marie-Helene is here as well. Actually she is just about to give a paper.
Otherwise, I am (obviously) overloaded with work, mostly teaching, partly research and almost nothing on writing new papers (mind you this part is really the urgent one). Well, I am hoping for that in upcoming weeks when the teaching load will be considerably smaller.
Last week, I had also fun, not only work, as we had a 3rd tango festival in
What else? Well, this blog is in desperate need for proper posts so I am happy to host anyone who wishes to write …
Or maybe I am about to wake up from a nonposting dream ….
After the Cambridge conference, I spent some days in London, working at LSE library. I managed to write my 1000 words a day and was getting more and more excited about upcoming Research Methods Festival, held at St. Catherine College in Oxford. Research methods festival … not a conference or a workshop but a festival. It was in fact more of a conference format but in a very dynamic and relaxed way, holding many concurrent sessions on very exciting topics (actually so many concurrent that I was confused most of the time which to attend as I wanted to hear them all).
In the end, I listened to sessions dealing with challenges in ethnography, innovations in qualitative research, ethical issues in social research, CAQDAS software and quality, anonymity & confidentiality, publishing, mixed methods, and QCA.
Again, some new faces appeared to my citations, such as Julia Brannen, Sara Delamont, Dave Byrne, Paul Atkinson and I also had an opportunity to meet Charles Ragin. Now, scrolling down my PhD has became a much more pleasant business;) Every time I run into Paul Atkinson quote, for instance, I start laughing out loud as I remember how he sketched a young doctor who decided to submit a book proposal to a publisher. Or I hear his scream “nooooooo” when he gave us advices on how to cope with publication rejections. All of them are very nice and approachable persons, indeed.
Well, neither Research Methds Festival 2008 will be left out of my schedule!
And, my Research Methods Library is richer for 23 books and journals. Some of them I bought in a splendid bookshop shown on the pictures below, some on the two conferences, and some in Waterstones in London in the section Second Hand, where I usually get to buy some interesting original works of classics.
I wish I had at least 10% of this at home;)
was a real stunner. The sessions covered a great variety of topics, from most heated philosophical and methodological issues and new tools & methods in mixed methods research to more applied, policy and action oriented topics, such as using mixed methods approach in health, nursing, education and evaluation research. There were sessions also on gender issues, researching young people, language & culture, decision making etcetera. Indeed many interesting issues were debated and presented by a core group of scholars, practitioners and researchers dealing with mixed methods.
At the last year conference, the presenters were mainly from health and nursing disciplines whilst this year this was more balanced as people from variety of other disciplines presented their works.
What I liked, amongst all the new knowledge I accumulated there, is that I was able to put faces to names I am citing all over the PhD, such as Abas Tashakkori, Jane & Nigel Fielding, Donna Mertens, Niki Plano, Alan Bryman, Martin Bulmer, Anthony Onwuegbuzie, Lynne Giddings, and others. Max Bergman and John Creswell were there already last year, along with my co-supervisor David Morgan.
There was also a very lovely moment, when after the conference dinner some of us went to the auditorium, where professor John Creswell played a piano for us. It put a special touch to the conference. It was really kind of him to share his passion for music with us.
All in all, it was a very enriching experience in academic and sociable terms. I am already looking forward to Mixed Methods Conference 2007!
Yesterday, I think I gave the most awful presentation in my whole conference/seminar/workshops history. My English was extremely bad, my sentences quite fuzzy and the structure of the presentation unclear. Reason? Unknown, so far!
But I love how I managed to put so much on such small slide;))
Then, at the end of the first week, I had a conference in Den Haag, giving a paper at the workshop Methodology Matters. I love the format of it, as we had to send papers beforehand, and at the workshop, we presented them in 15 minutes. Lovely! Because almost an hour was then dedicated to the discussion about each paper, starting off with a discussant’s comments followed by the comments from the rest of the participants. Most effective! I got great comments.
After the conference, Saki, Benoit, Airo and I went for a stroll thru the city and ran into queen herself;)) N/K!!
Hmmm … to all who sent me all the sms messages and emails: thanks for your concern. Luckily enough, I am in Oxford at the moment and won’t be going back to London till Sunday. Then I hope things will get back to normal. Tho here in Oxford people appears to be mad chilled … nobody seems to be bothered with what happened in London this morning … well, at least it looks like that. I keep getting smss whether I am ok and where am I. Seems to me that the rest of the world is in much greater panic about what’s happening around here than can actually be felt here.
My conference has just started and my presentation was good this morning. Most of the participants here are philosophers so the comments were quite interesting. One for example said: you know, there is no such thing as quantitative data, all data is in fact qualitative. Wow, I need to have a conversations with him. And the other one said: You know, a qualitative methodology is positivist one as well. And there was another comment on how all social science methodology is rubbish and that there is a completely different approach to research. I like all three of them and hope to have some fruitfull discussions in the following days.
In the afternoon me and Jana went to do some strolling thru the city, which btw is extremely appealing. And I found a fantastic book which I happened to forget in a toilet in the cinema … then I needed to rush back and at my surprise it was still there. Well, people probably don’t find a big excitement in social research methods book from Clive Seale … Actually it’s a very good reader.
Will keep in touch …