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OT: Kids website BeBo

heads up for all you parents out there about a website called Bebo which your kids may be accessing. It allows kids to register in a "school" area, but nothing in that area is controlled by the school, and is operated by a company nothing to do with education or the school system.

We have blocked it at school this week. Operates similar to Friends Reunited, but allows you to post pics of yourself, and see lots of people at the school.

Came to the attention of the ICT team, when they found some kids on it. Allows them to communicate across schools, but *no* checks are made on the people logging in. The network manager, a 55 year old male, decided to test the security of the system, and was able to register as a 14 year old female, and able to see all the kids at our school and schools in the surrounding area. By the end of the day, he had been listed as a "best m8" of many of the kids, and was being invited out. It does rely on you knowing some of the e-mail addresses of the kids, but if you know the main root domain, the rest is easy to guess by simply typing in random names.....

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Reply to
Simon Isaacs
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Frightening I checked the site it looks almost like a sophisticated chatroom, have you contacted the site operator and voiced your opinions feedback is usually welcome and you will be helping to protect the vulnerable. Derek

Reply to
Derek

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:36:30 GMT, "Derek" scribbled the following nonsense:

the school is on the case with the company, but aren't holding out much hope. They have informed the schools in Lincs, and then it is left to the county council to decide who else to spread the message to. We thought that message needs to go to a wider audience and now!!

Reply to
Simon Isaacs

Its a full time job just trying to block all the crap that the kids in school try to look at! The internet link was down for the last 2 days at one of my schools and it made it so much easier! - kids didnt like it as they actually had to do some work rather than finding games to play!

Reply to
Tom Woods

On or around Wed, 08 Mar 2006 22:10:13 +0000, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

Quite honestly, I wonder sometimes whether the correct approach is not to block things but to educate children so they recognise exploitation and other nastiness. The whole "think of the children" thing is, IMHO, getting way out of hand, and being taken to ridiculous limits in some cases. I realise you have to take steps to protect children from the (very few) people who actually would physically prey on them, but if by so doing they don't have any sort of life, then it's something of a pyrrhic victory.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

That's probably why the kids like it so much ;-)

Not wanting to slag your ICT team, but I've been hearing bebo being talked about for ages now by youngsters however it's only just now I've looked at it.

He would only be able to see the ones that registered!

I think educating the kids on the dangers of meeting strangers and the potential implications of putting stuff on the web is far more beneficial then simply banning/blocking sites. If I were on your ICT team I would agree with you in banning bebo - not from a point of view of "kids details" - they register themselves and put things up themselves and they know that anyone who registers can see things that go up, but I'd be blocking it because of some of the horrendously inappropriate anime videos on sites and adult dating site banners. Not going to make much difference anyway as most kids will have access to PCs elsewhere and I imagine most access is outside school time.

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
willie

Tell the departments that a whitelist system is going to be put in place at the start of a new academic year, then do it.....

Otherwise you're always going to be fighting a losing battle.

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
willie

Got it in one, Austin. I agree wholeheartedly.

Regards

William MacLeod

Reply to
willie

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