currybetdotnet Children and Teenagers archive

Game for a laugh - Anne Diamond on games in the Daily Mail
I still haven't had a chance to read the recent "Safer Children in a Digital World" Byron Report in full, although from what I've skimmed through so far I'm still sticking by my original opinion when I bookmarked it - that I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't framed in the hysterical tabloid tone that usually accompanies any debate about child safety and new media. The analogies about how we teach our children to swim and cross the road despite...

Read the full post - Published April 5, 2008 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail

Sky News give up on the hunt for Madeleine McCann
Well, after over 8 months, it seems that Sky News have given up on the hunt Madeleine McCann. Since May 2007, the single word Madeleine has been the third item on their main navigation - above Politics, World News, above Business and the Weather. That has all changed with today's redesigned homepage. Editor Steve Bennedik has even been moved to blog about it: There's one other change you may already have noticed. We've removed the heading "Madeleine" from the navigation...

Read the full post - Published December 6, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Media, The Sun

Trust me, the Child Benefit data loss risk to children isn't from paedophiles
One thing I noticed in the press coverage of the British Government's abject but predictable failure to protect personal data was this preposterous line of argument in an editorial in the Daily Mail: "The missing discs contain the names, addresses and dates of birth of every child in the country...Wouldn't fraudsters and child abusers give anything to get their hands on them?" Seriously, what are child abusers going to do with this information? Surely, and call me old-fashioned, if paedophiles...

Read the full post - Published November 25, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Web, eGovernment

There's only been one unforgettable dinner in Portugal this year
I spotted this advert for tourism in Portugal at Queensway station on my way to work yesterday. Is it just me? Or do you think that, given that the biggest media story in the UK this year has been about a dinner in Portugal that turned out to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons, promoting the country with the strapline "To be continued...at an unforgettable dinner" is a little ill thought out?...

Read the full post - Published October 16, 2007 in Children and Teenagers

Is Britain's brightest A-Level student a boy or an anonymous photogenic teenage girl?
This one is as regular as clockwork on the currybet.net site - the A-Level results come out, and I start moaning about the depressing and sexist coverage of it - here's one I made earlier in 2003. Who'd think that boys even took A-Levels these days? And if teenagers do manage to perform well in the exams, well, then they are obviously worthless bits of paper anyway. And everybody wonders why teenagers in Britain appear to suffer from low self-esteem...

Read the full post - Published August 16, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mirror, Media

Who benefits financially from the Madeleine McCann publicity juggernaut?
I noticed towards the end of this week that, alongside the rumours of journalist frolics in Portugal whilst following the Madeleine McCann case, a couple of columnists have broken rank with the default position of their newspaper. Today on The Time's site Stefanie Marsh has been called "a very lonely, sad, selfish person" for her piece "I confess: I have not been agonising about Madeleine". There has been disquiet expressed in the Telegraph, and yesterday it was Amanda Platell...

Read the full post - Published June 1, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Media, Newspapers, Search, The Times

Madeleine McCann and Alex Meschisvili - a culture contrast
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal hasn't made the TV news bulletins or English language press here in Greece, but as I still follow a lot of what goes on in the media in the UK, I have seen the acres of coverage devoted to the story at the other end of the continent. One trend that seems to be emerging in these high profile media scrum "Diana moments" in recent years is the intimate involvement of suspects or...

Read the full post - Published May 28, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Greece, Media, Popular

Games and Social Networking driving more young Greeks to use the internet?
I merited a brief mention in this post on the UrbanGreeks blog about internet activity in Greece - "Internet: The Nerdy Kid That Nobody Wants to Play With". I get quoted about my ordeal trying to get even a basic phone-line from OTE, the state monopoly provider here. "My experience of trying to get a connection set up here didn't do much to counter theory [that OTE are a major bottleneck to internet access]. Once the paperwork is done it...

Read the full post - Published May 16, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Greece, Web

The Sun using blogs to solicit amateur Page 3 Girl style photos
When The Sun first launched their MY Sun social networking / blogging / message-board platform last year, I wondered how long it would be until they started soliciting topless pictures of their reader's wives. I didn't have to wait too long. I don't know if it is strictly the first time they have done it (given their Page 3 Idol competition a couple of months back), but during the run-up to Easter, in their "Easter Bunny" competition (first prize...

Read the full post - Published March 28, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, The Sun

BBC Jam closes today - how far will the repercussions be felt?
Today sees the suspension, pending review, of BBC Jam, the BBC's digital curriculum service, which was announced last week by the BBC Trust. Last week I littered my initial reaction liberally around various comment boxes on the web, but having had a bit of time to gather my thoughts on the subject, four points stand out for me 1) The loss of business to the independent web sector The complaints portray the BBC as a massive well-funded elephant that...

Read the full post - Published March 20, 2007 in BBC, Children and Teenagers, DCMS, Politics

Blue Peter fakes competition result - in the Middle East?

Published March 14, 2007 in BBC, Children and Teenagers

Now the Daily Mail is twisting MY words about ChildLine

Published February 27, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Media

The Daily Mail distorts Childline's report on youth mental health in the UK

Published February 26, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Media

Media coverage of a shocking sex attack in Greece

Published November 17, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Greece, Media

Nostalgia for Airfix ain't what it used to be

Published November 11, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Media, Nostalgia

Writing headlines to whip up a frenzy of comments about kids

Published October 27, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Media

Some six year olds are not very good at geography

Published October 23, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Media, The Sun

MySpace's teenage audience - up or down?

Published October 6, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Media, Web

An exam by any other name

Published September 28, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Politics

Exposing children in the press to protect them from online harm

Published September 24, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Media, Web

Keeping the North West safe and sound

Published September 8, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Web

What do you remember about the news when you were nine?

Published September 1, 2006 in BBC, Children and Teenagers, Media

There's just no messin' with the kids

Published August 23, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Transport

Do boys even take A-Levels these days?

Published August 18, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Evening Standard, Media

It must be nearly A-Level time again

Published August 11, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Evening Standard, Politics

ID Cards making the net a more dangerous place for kids

Published August 4, 2006 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, ID cards, Web

Murder by Playstation?

Published July 29, 2004 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Sony

Today is European Safer Internet Day

Published February 6, 2004 in Children and Teenagers, Europe, Web

Children, the Internet, and media sensationalism

Published January 13, 2004 in Children and Teenagers, Media, Web

MSN will protect your children

Published September 24, 2003 in Children and Teenagers, Microsoft

MSN ditches chat - Gillian Kent urges everybody to adopt Instant Messenger

Published September 24, 2003 in Children and Teenagers, Microsoft

The English media's A-Level summer ritual

Published August 13, 2003 in Children and Teenagers, Media

Searching for Pete Townshend

Published January 13, 2003 in Children and Teenagers, Music, Search