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- not for some years judging by the current dreary options to choose from, but you can live in hope :-)
- Totally agree that the discussion about engagement should be about getting politicians to engage with the people they represent not the other way round - I think falling numbers of voters are going...
- ah well if you're making a case for voting at much younger ages too ie. we're all citizens I'm interested in that albeit obviously all sorts of implications but I can agree that the...
- I wouldn't say that it is a ground up campaign (from young people) but I don't think that makes the case for it invalid. I also don't think voting reduces young people's childhood....
- it doesn't make sense, but then neither does it if 16 year olds can't have other adult responsibilities too, so do you also lower the age at which people can buy cigarettes, buy alcohol, be...
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In the last post I wrote about a proposal in the US to make it illegal for school teachers to have ’social networking friendships’ with students. Personally I’ll be surprised if it actually happens and much more surprised if it happened in the UK, but I think mo
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10 months ago
...I'll see what we can do with the write up from YWSN research to at least lay some foundations for responding to these...
10 months ago
Some maybe pose questions about appropriate professional relationships and some relate back to normal Child Protection stuff - but with this there needs to be certain things in place and for staff to be aware of these so that action can be taken.
I think we also need to take into account that working online perhaps calls for a different understanding of what 'work' is - so for example the flexibility of being able to reply at all hours may on the one hand cause confusion about when somebody is/isn't working, but on the other hand provides the opportunity to reach further than if restricted to 'office hours'.
Something I was thinking about is that it relates a bit to the old question about whether youth workers should live on the estates they work in and how this potentially causes problems for them being seen as 'at work' all the time.
I was also thinking about the differences between outreach work and detached work - so for example I used to run a 'centre' and would sometimes go out on the streets but always with a view to 'bringing young people in' to the centre. Whereas of course with detached work people go out into young peoples places and work where they're at.
Online this could be like using social networks to promote other 'safe' online places where you would seek to 'bring' young people, and then theres the detached approach of using social networks as the place where you would use that space to make contact etc.
Each of these would need its own distinct guidance and boundaries - the detached approach would require respect for the 'invasion' aspect, and also operating within the rules provided by that space.
The outreach approach would need guidance about standards for data collection & storing data.
The more I think about it the more I see a good case for some kind of kitemark type thing thing that indicates certain standards and working practices and refers back to a point where people can obtain information about what online youth work is, where to get details and check for legitimacy etc. Something like this would probably best grow organically and voluntarily at first and obviously all sorts of questions and issues to overcome related to the different organisations people work within - but so far with a lack of anything like this its probably a good time to have the discussion before things start to go down the routes of whats happening in Missouri.