Leading child safety expert joins the blogosphere

John Carr, who is a UK-based expert in child online protection and a member of GRID’s Expert team for our European Edition, has recently launched a personal blog.  Entitled ‘Desiderata’, the blog will be a platform for John to post his views on a wide range of topics relating to online safety for children and the digital technologies they use for connectivity, including computers, cell phones and MP3 players, to name but a few.

Desiderata (from the Latin for ‘things you desire or need’) is aimed primarily at parents and those with responsibility for children under the age of eighteen and will mainly discuss issues affecting the UK, although will reference international developments where appropriate.

John’s first post discusses measures currently being discussed by the European Union to block images of child pornography and gives an excellent overview of the workings of the Internet Watch Foundation.

To read the blog go to http://johnc1912.wordpress.com/

GRID makes its public debut

Against the stunning backdrop of the House of Lords in London, GRID was publically launched today.  From the terrace of the stunning, River Thames venue, over eighty guests enjoyed lunch and interactive tours of this exciting new portal.

GRID has taken nearly two years to bring to fruition.  A full time team of editors, researchers and specialists have built and continue to maintain what is widely acclaimed as the most comprehensive family online safety portal of its kind.  During its beta phase it has been used extensively by the FOSI membership, as well as being subjected to rigorous expert oversight.

The launch event was opened by Baroness Thornton – it was her patronage that enabled us to hold yet another landmark FOSI event at such an outstanding location.  Brief remarks from Stephen Balkam and John Carr were followed by an introduction to GRID.

With representatives from AT&T, Disney, Facebook, the GSM Association, IBM, Nickelodeon, RuleSpace, StreamShield, Symantec, Telefónica, Microsoft, Verizon and Vodafone, as well as from prominent UK and International regulatory and not-for-profit organizations, GRID emerged to overwhelmingly positive feedback.

The team and I are all very proud of what we have accomplished.  We believe that GRID is unique and hope that it will connect experts across the globe, highlighting best practise and enabling professionals to work more effectively – bringing disparate information to one location.  If this is your first visit, I invite you to read our User Guide to learn more.