Childnet today hosted a reception in the Strangers Dining Room in the House of Commons, to celebrate the inclusion at the voice of youth at the Internet Governance Forum. Hosted by Rt. Hon Alun Michael, the event included 26 children and young people from Guernsey, Liverpool, London, Devon and Plymouth representing the 1,500 plus children and young people engaged with over the project. The youth delegates were given the opportunity to mingle with and talk to MPs and representatives from the online services that they use including Google, Club Penguin, MySpace, Skype and Facebook. The event was covered by Radio 4 who spoke with many of the young people.

A generous donation from Club Penguin is helping boost Childnet International’s internet safety education efforts. The donation has allowed Childnet to recruit an additional Education Officer who will expand the work to promote safe and responsible use of the Internet with children and young people around the UK. The support from Club Penguin will also enable Childnet to translate some of Childnet’s key educational content for children into French.

As original members of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), Childnet were pleased to take part in the UKCCIS Summit and to contribute to the launch of the first UK Child Internet Safety Strategy.

On December 4th, Childnet International’s Know IT All for Primary Schools, supported and funded by BECTA, the TDA and UKCCIS, was named as the overall winner of the MEDEA Awards 2009 by Maruja Gutierrez-Diaz, Advisor to the Director of the Lifelong Learning Programme, European Commission during a well-attended reception in Berlin.

As the pinnacle of the Youth IGF Project, Childnet attended the IGF 2009 in Sharm-el-Sheikh to share the thoughts and opinions on Internet Governance of young people in the UK with the other delegates, alongside running a workshop on Internet Governance and activating and listening to the voice of young people.

Liam McLear and Alex Everett, Childnet Youth IGF Project participants, both from Uffculme Secondary school in Devon, have been selected as delegates for the first ever IGF Youth Camp, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) as part of this year’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

In Sydney, Childnet CEO Will Gardner and Chris Chapman, Chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, launched the Australian version of the Let's Fight IT Together  film today. This award-winning resource has been adapted for Australian needs and is being made available free to all schools in Australia.

Following the July launch of Know IT All for Primary Schools by Professor Tanya Byron, Childnet has teamed with Crick Software and Widgit Software, and are delighted to announce the availability of new resources on the KIA website designed to support those with special educational need and reinforcing the e-safety messages contained within Know IT All for Primary schools.

Childnet were awarded the Nominet Best Practice Award in the category of ‘Personal Safety Online’ for the new KidSMART website at the 2009 Nominet Best Practice Challenge Award Ceremony held last night.

Child psychologist, Professor Tanya Byron, is launching a new set of resources called ‘Know IT All for primary teachers’ to help schools keep children safe online.