The i in online
The i in online predominately educates primary school children aged 9-11 and secondary school children aged 14-19, (their parents and teachers) about using and providing their personal information online and also highlights the potential pitfalls of sharing too much personal information on the internet when using blogs or social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc, and not managing privacy settings effectively. Through interactive sessions, using PowerPoint and videos, legal experts highlight the regulatory and legal aspects of this topic, whilst also demonstrating technical issues and illustrating mechanisms to help protect personal data whilst using the internet.
Progress to date
The i in online has an 18 strong consortium which have over the last 12 months had approximately 100 lawyers/law students volunteer to support nearly 2,000 school children and parents in 35 schools across the UK and Ireland. Since September 2009, Speechly Bircham’s 11 volunteers have provided over 450 pro bono hours, valued at over £130,000.
Campaign sponsors
The i in online has brought together a large consortium of legal professionals from across various different fields who raise awareness of online issues by delivering the presentations and promoting active learning through the media project. The campaign was originally spearheaded by Speechly Bircham’s CSR team and supported by the firm’s Information Law team, but quickly developed to include other organisations.
Primary school sessions
The 30-40 minute session is interactive and fun for the children, using power point and cartoon style video clips to cover; what is personal data, how is it used and also misused whilst online. The presentation is delivered by lawyers as we feel it is important to also highlight an individual’s privacy and human rights online, using real life examples to illustrate the issues. The presenters give examples of how children can safe guard their information on the internet and provide hints and tips to achieve this.
Secondary school sessions
The project is delivered in 2 phases, each session lasting 45 minutes.
Phase 1 – Introductory session
This presentation covers legal and regulatory aspects surrounding these issues, highlights an individual’s privacy and human rights. This session is supported by video clips to illustrate the key areas.
Phase 2 – Advanced session
The second presentation demonstrates how you can actually protect your personal information, such as understanding Subject Access Requests, your browser history and privacy settings.
We also facilitate discussion groups with the children covering topics such as, social networks and privacy, cyber bullying, personal safety online and also misuse of personal information.
The i in online competition
We are running a competition in conjunction with this project for secondary aged children. During Phase 1, the school children will see video clips which were produced by Norwegian secondary schools with English subtitles. We would like the school children who have seen these clips to produce their own videos which cover one of the following six topics;
1. Social networks and privacy
2. Cyber bullying
3. Personal safety online
4. Misuse of personal information
5. Personal data awareness
6. CCTV and monitoring
The video must be no more than five minutes in length and the school children must obtain parental consent. The media project itself needs to be run by the school. Any help which is required by the participants, such as training and access to the necessary equipment must also be provided by the school.
The 2009/10 Competition is now closed
The judging panel
We are pleased to have the Information Commissioner’s Office on the judging panel together with Speechly Bircham, The Walt Disney Company UK, BBC, Childnet International and Coolabi.
Competition prize
We will have one overall winning video from the six categories which will provide the team with a unique opportunity of a behind the scenes tour of Sky’s newsroom.
The winning video from each category will be made available via the Information Commissioner’s website and will act as a role model to other young people, and the clips will also be shown in future ‘The i in online’ presentations.
Contact us
If you are interested in being involved in this project please contact Shelley Rowley with any questions on info@theiinonline.org or on +44(0)20 7427 6425.