Nigel Williams, Childnet's founder and first CEO, has been awarded an international award for his “outstanding contribution with international impact to the awareness of social implications of information technology”, at the Institut d’Informatique, Namur, Belgium.

Childnet is delighted to announce that the recently published Know IT All interactive CD-ROM for secondary schools, has been nominated for the UK Internet industry awards (The ISPAs ) in the category 'Developments in Online Safety'.

Childnet International and the National Crime Squad are pleased to announce the secondment of one of Childnet’s Project Managers, Helen Penn, to the new Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre for a 12 month period from 1st February 2006.

Firstly to the Home Office and Scottish Executive consultation on the possession of extreme pornographic material. Childnet support the proposal in the consultation to make illegal the possession of extreme pornographic material. The production and publishing of such material is already illegal, and Childnet outline in the response why the possession of such material should also be made illegal.Childnet have also recently submitted a response to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Consultation on the Draft Safety Measures Notice for Mobile Chat Services.

Childnet is pleased to announce the launch of the Know IT All Internet safety campaign aimed at secondary schools. This campaign which is a joint initiative with MSN UK, Microsoft and the Virtual Global Taskforce, consists of a pilot volunteer programme called Getting to Know IT All, and a teachers resource pack called Know IT All.

Following on from the success of the Childnet publication “Children & Mobile Phones: an Agenda for Action”, Childnet’s Will Gardner has been invited to speak at a major international conference in Milan this week entitled ‘Mobile Adult Content’.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, www.itu.int/wsis) is seeking to bridge the digital divide and build an inclusive information society in pursuit of the development goals of the Millenium Declaration. Childnet is working in partnership with other international NGOs to ensure that the WSIS process and any commitments that are made have a strong focus on children and ensuring children benefit from the incredible opportunities that technology has to offer them.

Members of staff from Childnet were pleased to be invited by one of their valued sponsors ‘Thales’ to help on their stand at the International Festival of the Sea in Portsmouth. The Festival is one of the largest maritime events in Europe, and hosts more than 200,000 visitors over 4 days.

Over the last few months Childnet has been working with the Ministry for Investment, Industry and IT in Malta to translate and adapt its Kidsmart Internet safety education programme. This has included translating the Kidsmart leaflets and distributing bulk quantities to every school in the country, running training for teachers and child care specialists on Internet safety issues, and advising on a forthcoming national Internet safety campaign.

This week Childnet launched a new International campaign to help parents guide children about music on the internet. The campaign which consists of a leaflet and a website, aims to help parents everywhere to keep up to speed with the music downloading habits of their children, and to be aware of the associated risks in terms of legal, content and security issues.