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Zip it, Block It, Flag It. The new 'green cross code' for Internet safety
Tuesday 08 December 2009 14:25:55 by John Hunt

The green cross code - Stop, Look, Listen - are the rules taught to children to make sure they cross the road safely, and the new digital code to be taught at primary schools will follow a similar pattern- 'Zip It, Block It, Flag it'. The new online green cross code is part of a government strategy called "Click Clever, Click Safe", drawn up by the UK Council on Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS). Part of this involves making it compulsory to teach online safety to children aged 5 and up in England from 2011. The three parts of the green cross code are fairly self explanatory:

Zip It - Protect yourself. Don't share personal details with strangers online

Block It - Stop unwanted emails coming to children and stop them accessing certain Internet sites

Flag It - Flag up any suspicious people or websites to the relevant person, whether parent, teacher or the police.

A Safer Internet week in February will launch the campaign which will target parents and children. More information is available from the UKCCIS website.

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Comments

Posted by JeremyBoden 3 months ago
I hope they get Darth Vader to advertise the campaign.
Posted by Dawn_Falcon 3 months ago
I'm not sure (even) Darth Vader could rescue this one.
Posted by mrc99 3 months ago
So what in the curriculum is going to to be reduced/removed to make way for this? What training are the teachers (poor sods) going to get or are they just going to be given a piece of paper and told 'go teach'?
Posted by kawasakiMan 3 months ago
Not sure that Zip-it is the right term to use, pc savvy kids will be compressing stuff before they up-load it :-(
Posted by mishminx 3 months ago
Given the amount of fluff in the curriculum, I am sure they can make room for this. You would hope that most teachers would grasp the basics without training. It is rather simplified after all. Might be a problem if parents latch on to the notion that teachers are suddenly internet experts though and start asking them for info and advice.

Especially if they then blame teachers for poor advice because they are too lazy to figure things out themselves.
Posted by CARPETBURN 3 months ago
LOL you couldnt make this stuff up....... What do you say when you get a virus or your credit card details nicked??? Oh (BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP IT).

Block it... Must be joking right? Most kids know how to work around porn blocks better than dad lol

Flag it... Quite how a kid is going to identify a suspicious person when half the people they talk to on facepalm or whatever they dont know anyway remains a mystery.
About the only sensible part is the "Zip-it" bit and how they will make a whole curriculum telling kids not to tell people online your address or name will be interesting.
Posted by pigfister 3 months ago
this is just more scare mongering to keep us in the state of fear.

we must protect the children & woman from paedophiles, terrorists & pirates!

anyway we wouldn't want the children seeing any of them videos of UK soldiers murdering innocent Iraqis now would we, or the latest wikileaks document shows that the government was complicit in torture or the BAE systems illegal weapons deals!

what about DPI the government is going to force isp's to roll out to spy on all our private data?
Posted by Finney144 3 months ago
Pooh Bah (Lord High Everything Else)gets my award for villainy no matter what the subject is.
Posted by JDPower 3 months ago
Darth Vader??? Don't think Peter Mandelsson would be a good choice to advertise the campaign ;)

And the 'Zip it' lone had me looking for an explanation when I heard it on the news, couldn't work out how zipping files would improve online safety.
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