Part of the requirement of my University’s computing course is to stay up to date when it comes to trends pertinent to the subject (as is the case with any subject, actually). There are two examples of lessons we as teachers must be aware of from the recent news.
The first is the Katie Hopkins libel case. I will not go into too much detail here, but essentially, she said some untruths in quite a hurtful way about a food blogger. This food blogger took her to court, arguing that defamation of character had taken place, and Ms Hopkins was ordered to pay a substantial sum of money in damages. This case illustrates that we must be responsible about what we say on Social Media, as we would be with the spoken word. A computer screen is not something you can hide behind. The second example of e-safety issues in the news is this story about “Blue Whale”, a suicide game behind the deaths of hundreds of teenagers, mostly in Eastern Europe. The game, according to this article, “encourages at-risk participants to take part in a series of tasks like cutting themselves every day for 50 days”. Obviously, this is a massive concern, particularly at the top end of Primary School, where children may be more impressionable to material on the internet (combined with less rigorous checking from parents). We must be able to spot these signs.
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