Bebo. MySpace. Facebook. Odds are you’ve heard about these websites by word-of-mouth, or mentioned in the media, but you probably weren’t aware that there are even more (over 100 at last count) social networking websites online and waiting in the wings, ready to occupy your free time. You may already be using them yourself, perhaps to share photos or to discuss your favourite books. However, it is also likely that, with the speed and momentum at which social network sites cater to aspects of mainstream, sub and counter cultures, your kids are already finding a place on the web to call their own, too.

For those of you wondering, a social network service:

“…uses software to build online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.”

Common perceptions towards social networks sites lean towards the alarmist point of view, ie: that if your child is online, they are “in danger”. And while there may indeed be some factual basis to support that attitude, there are things you can do to protect your children online and still enjoy the benefits of online social interaction.

If you’re comfortable with your kids using social networking sites, you may wish to consider the following points, and indeed discuss them with your children:

Review websites’ privacy policies
Of particular importance, you need to know your rights as a parent to manage (or even delete) your child’s online profile if they are younger than 13. (Facebook in particular frowns upon anyone signed up to their website who is under 13 and considers them in violation of their Terms of Use policy.)

Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your child's website.
Most social networking sites have advanced privacy settings where users can lock away very specific parts of their information from casual passers-by. On Facebook and MySpace for example, the Privacy link is now part of their primary navigation menu, in the top-right of the page.

Talk to your children about what information should be kept private
Children may now be computer-savvy enough to create Powerpoint presentations, but may not realise the importance of not posting their age, hometown, etc.

Look at the friend list
Consider limiting the amount of ‘friends’ your child communicates with to people you are sure he or she already knows.

Join your kids online
Sign up for and use the same social networking sites your child is using. Make them aware of your presence and demonstrate good behaviour online.

Know how your kids are getting online
Apart from computers and cell phones, don’t forget that modern games consoles like the Nintendo DS, Wii, Sony PSP and PS3 all offer internet access via wireless networks, but also have parental controls for you to limit and restrict their access.

If you’d prefer your children not be online (but are concerned they may be anyway), consider:

1. Creating a restricted access user account on your computer that limits what programs the user can run
2. Reviewing your child’s internet history – this is turned on by default in most browsers and usually catalogues about a week’s worth of visited sites.

Communication with your child is always the best possible course of action against a perceived threat, but if in doubt, turn off the computer, call up some school friends and arrange to go bowling. The advent of online social networking may be drastically changing the way we interact with one another, but it's not yet anything like the real experience.

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Below is the template file for IB2 students who want to create a full-page with a friend for the 2007-2008 Westminster Yearbook. This file is for Adobe Photoshop and is a blank file set to 210mm w x 1297mm h at 300dpi.
Click here to download

Below is the template file for IB2 students who want to create their own half-page for the 2007-2008 Westminster Yearbook. This file is for Adobe Photoshop and is a blank file set to 210mm w x 148.5mm h at 300dpi.
Click here to download.

So what happens when technology gives us all the answers? Raul Midon has some ideas.

Over the half term, all the Apple Macs on campus were upgraded to OS X 10.4 "Tiger", making our operating system concurrent with that of the Hampstead and Westminster campuses. In addition to this, all staff and students now have access to the Adobe CS3 Web Premium Suite (including Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver and Acrobat Pro). The advantages of having professional design software at the fingertips of Southbank members are plenty, most notably now that through Acrobat Pro we have a common platform for authoring PDF files across the school as a whole.

Class attendance is now being done electronically in ePortal on classroom computers in the morning and the afternoon. This marks the first of Kensington's forays into using the ePortal management information system, and entering reports will follow soon.

The majority of the Kensington parent body are now signed up to our electronic Weekly Mailing, and more are signing up each week, saving us time and resources in getting this information out to our parents. Thank you for helping us with this initiative. It has come to the attention of the IT department that some Yahoo!, Hotmail and Compuserve email addresses are still not receiving the weekly mailing. Having looked into this, we have determined that the fault lies with their servers and we are working towards finding a resolution. Therefore parents with those kinds of email addresses will get a direct email of the Weekly Mailing from me until the issues have been resolved.

Event at the Apple Executive Briefing Centre
Tomorrow (Wednesday, 21st November) the IT department will be giving a presentation on Authoring Blogs and Podcasts at the Apple Executive Briefing Centre in Hanover Street. Although this event is invitation only, we hope to develop the presentation and deliver it to other members of the Southbank community throughout the year.

In The Pipeline
We're currently working on building a media server that will push out audio and video resources to staff and students on campus. This will leverage the built-in music sharing feature of iTunes and deliver these resources to classroom computers on demand. Developing a central point of video resources will enable teachers to create video playlists in the classroom and be able to play them anywhere on campus (including on our two new interactive whiteboards), without the need to use extra resources such as TV, DVD and video players.