Nomination shortlist for IWF ISPA Award
The ISPAs - the UK Internet industry awards - are unique as they are awarded to people and organisations in the industry by their peers and reflect the broad nature of the service provider sector.
The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA UK) has been organising the UK Internet Industry Awards since 1999 to herald the best of the Internet industry and to celebrate innovation and best practice. In 2002 the awards were dubbed The ISPAs.
Nominations for this year's IWF ISPA Award for 'Developments in Online Safety' can be any scheme or initiative in the UK which has significantly contributed towards the progress of online safety in 2005.
These organisations can be commercial, not-for-profit, charities, an educational or academic institution or a public sector agency.
It could be the creation of a new forum or working group, a project, a noteworthy event, the development of a new tool or service, a piece of groundbreaking research and so on.
Whilst the nominations are not restricted to online safety in respect of illegal content, consideration to this part of the IWF remit makes the award even more meaningful.
From the shortlist the IWF Board will select an overall winner.
Below is the shortlist for the 2006 Award:
Virtual Global Taskforce The Virtual Global Taskforce was launched in January 2005 as a new web-based initiative to deter and prevent individuals from committing child abuse on-line. The new website has been pioneered by the UK’s National Crime Squad in association with UK industry leaders and law enforcement counterparts in Australia, Canada, the US, and Interpol. The Virtual Global Taskforce partnership aims to make the Internet a safer place for children and a more hostile place for paedophiles.
For more information about the Virtual Global Taskforce click here
Get Safe Online The Get Safe Online campaign was launched in September 2005 to tackle the problem of UK Internet users putting themselves at risk of attack from Internet criminals because they don’t understand threats to their computer or the ways to protect against them.
To help the public educate themselves, the Get Safe Online campaign will raise public awareness of the issues and provide solutions through a new website: www.getsafeonline.org. The website is a one-stop-shop for reliable, up-to-date information about online safety, to give home users and small businesses the advice they need to use the Internet safely.
The campaign is a joint initiative between HM Government, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, part of the National Crime Squad and private sector sponsors from the worlds of technology, retail and finance,
For more information about Get Safe Online click here
UK Children Go Online The UK Children Go Online research project started in April 2003 and finished in April 2005.
The final report of a two year long research project found that the lack of internet skills and experience among many UK parents is potentially harming their children’s education and job prospects and could be placing them on the wrong side of a growing digital divide.
The project explores the nature and meaning of children's internet use and maps emerging patterns of attitudes and practices across diverse contexts and social groups in the UK. It is part of the ESRC's e-Society Programme and is based at the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The project balances an assessment of online risks and opportunities in order to contribute to developing academic debates and policy frameworks for children and young people’s internet use.
A thorough study was conducted, using a rigorous, representative and in-depth survey of children and young people in Britain aged 9 to 19. The aim was to understand how children are using the internet at the start of the twenty-first century, thereby contributing to the development of a balanced and grounded policy framework.
For more information about UK Children Go Online click here
Know it allKnow IT All is an interactive CD-ROM which helps secondary-aged pupils understand a broad range of issues when using the internet or mobile phone. This resource has been produced by Childnet with funding and support from MSN UK, Microsoft and the Virtual Global Taskforce.
The purpose of Know It All is to help students reflect on their own use of communication technology, be aware of the dangers and develop safe and discriminating behaviour when using new technology. The content addresses a number of issues relevant to the national curriculum in information and communication technology (ICT), personal, health and social education (PHSE), citizenship, and media literacy.
The Know IT All resource has been distributed to every secondary school in the country and to coincide with its launch, Childnet trained over 200 volunteers from Microsoft/MSN and the Police to go into schools to present the message. During the autumn these volunteers worked in 98 schools and reached over 50,000 young people with the "Getting to Know IT all" interactive presentation. The feedback has been extremely positive from both the schools and volunteers and it is hoped that this successful volunteering model can be further extended next year.
For more information about Know it all click here
Parents CentreParentscentre is an official Department for Education and Skills (DfES) website for parents and carers. They aim to act as a reference book about the education system and a provider of information about the myriad issues relevant to parents and their children. They also aim to direct parents and carers to other sources of information and advice.
Parentscentre has links to numerous relevant websites, both Governmental and non-Governmental. At the beginning of 2005, Parents Online a DfES website to help parents understand the internet so that they and their children can use it safely was merged into Parentscentre. In addition to the internet-related content brought over from Parents Online, Parentscentre has also incorporated their Forum and Agony Aunt services.
For more information about Parents Centre click here
The ISPA awards categories now fall into one of two divisions - the ISP and Special Awards.
Along with the IWF ISPA Award, The Special Awards features the official Internet Hero and Internet Villain categories.
Roger Darlington has been nominated for the Internet Hero for his hard work as Chairman of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) from which he retires this year.
The ISPA Council, a ten person board elected from ISPA’s membership, selects the shortlists and eventual winners in the Internet Hero and Internet Villain awards. The shortlists reflect those individuals or organisations that have either helped or hampered the interests of the Internet industry in the past year.
The 2006 ISPAs will be held 23rd February 2006 in central London.
For more information click here
Created: Tue, December 13th, 2005 | Last Modified: Wed, March 8th, 2006
