There is no doubt that the internet has changed all our lives. The childcare sector may have been slow to adopt new technology, but nearly all early years professionals are now using the web to find advice and information, support topic work with the children, maybe access distance learning courses, and speed up communications for business and personal life through e-mail and more. But the internet has also enabled child pornography to proliferate and be distributed around the world at a shocking and alarming rate. Ever younger children are involved; international criminal gangs are increasingly running such operations as huge sums of money can be made. Our Special Report this week (pages 10-11) reveals the large numbers of children being abused for this online trade and the phenomenal amount of child abuse images that are being circulated. It makes for very disturbing reading.
There is no doubt that the internet has changed all our lives. The childcare sector may have been slow to adopt new technology, but nearly all early years professionals are now using the web to find advice and information, support topic work with the children, maybe access distance learning courses, and speed up communications for business and personal life through e-mail and more.
But the internet has also enabled child pornography to proliferate and be distributed around the world at a shocking and alarming rate. Ever younger children are involved; international criminal gangs are increasingly running such operations as huge sums of money can be made. Our Special Report this week (pages 10-11) reveals the large numbers of children being abused for this online trade and the phenomenal amount of child abuse images that are being circulated. It makes for very disturbing reading.
This is an issue that all those caring for children should be aware of, however. We all need to be vigilant in the face of this appalling crime.
The next issue of Out of School (8 April) will look at safety issues for older children when using the net, and at how they can be protected from paedophile 'grooming'.
