MyCBBC is being launched at a time when up to 1,800 staff are being axed
The new site will be aimed at children too young for Facebook
Posted on 01/24/2008 10:10:27 PM PST by Stoat
MyCBBC is being launched at a time when up to 1,800 staff are being axed
The new site will be aimed at children too young for Facebook
The BBC is setting up a Facebook-style social networking site for children as young as six.
The MyCBBC service is aimed at those who are too young for Facebook and other commercial rivals such as MySpace and Bebo.
These sites have a lower age limit of 13, but the BBC's site will target six to 12-year-olds.
Critics yesterday accused the corporation of empire building and going beyond its remit with the plans.
They claim the commercial market is already providing a similar service and say the publicly-funded BBC should concentrate on making programmes.
MyCBBC, which starts in April and is costing £200,000 to develop, will be piloted among 1,000 children next month.
It will accessible via the BBC homepage and users will be able to design online "dens" to reflect their personality and interests.
The BBC says children using the site will be completely protected against Internet predators.
Youngsters will be able to send messages from a palette of predetermined symbols and phrases, but they will not be able to make unscripted contact with strangers on the site.
This is to stop children revealing personal details and leaving them vulnerable to paedophiles using the internet to groom victims.
A BBC spokesman said no e-mail addresses would be exchanged between users and only those registered on the children's BBC website could communicate with each other.
However, Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, said: "This has got nothing to do with the BBC. They should stick with what they are supposed to be doing.
"They are always saying they have not got any money, but it seems like they have got too much, as they are always thrashing around for something new to do with it."
Tory MP John Whittingdale, who chairs the select committee, said: "This is a long way from the BBC's core purposes."
Others have questioned how the BBC can be sure children will be protected against Internet predators.
MyCBBC is being launched at a time when up to 1,800 staff are facing the axe because the BBC received a lower-thanexpected licence fee settlement.
Critics said the £200,000 could have been spent saving jobs. Commercial networking sites for children exist such as the Disney-owned Club Penguin.
However, Marc Goodchild, the BBC executive overseeing the project, told industry magazine Broadcast: "There is a commercialmarket failing because they don't want to take on the responsibility for younger users. The only player which can do this has to be a public service broadcaster.
"This is about trying to develop their Internet skills and social networking in a safe, protected environment. It's about media literacy. We can use it to make children aware of the risks and dangers of the wider web, which is unregulated."
A BBC spokesman played down the comparisons with Facebook, claiming its site was designed to encourage users to talk about BBC shows.
He said that once the site had been set up, running costs would be minimal, but did not know what these would be.
(edit)
A BBC spokesman played down the comparisons with Facebook, claiming its site was designed to encourage users to talk about BBC shows
No, it's about driving more viewers to the BBC, instilling brand loyalty and grooming lifelong viewers when people are at their must vulnerable ages.
Ping
Too bad the folks at the The Daily Mail (U.K.) need just plain literacy. Did they never hear of paragraphs? The article is written at a 6 year old level.
This is not a good idea. Kids that age don't need computer social lives, and don't need to be fresh bait for the pedophiles.
mom ping?
Wouldn't you say that most US papers are just as bad or worse? I can usually pick up a newspaper and find multiple spelling or grammatical errors on any page. It seems that most of the errors are due to editors relying on spellcheck software, judging from the types of errors that I typically see.
This is not a good idea. Kids that age don't need computer social lives, and don't need to be fresh bait for the pedophiles.
Agreed. It could even make children more vulnerable to victimization when they become older, because they have been using the internet in an artificially-'safe' environment and so they are accustomed to a structured, protected experience.
And re the paragraph issue, if you look at the Daily Mail page, the article is indeed broken into ‘paragraphs’....the problem in this case is that the different formatting in Free Republic spreads everything out more, and most of the ‘paragraphs’ are only one sentence.
So, part of the problem is with the ‘translation’ :-)
Yeah right, I know Big Brother is big in the UK, but give me a break.
Yeah right, I know Big Brother is big in the UK, but give me a break.
And there has been such a stellar track record on protecting children from pedophiles in the UK as well as the USA, there certainly isn't any need to worry about this. Nothing to see here, move right along.
Great Britain 150 paedos in your school (At least 150 convicted pedophiles working in U.K. schools)
Let me guess the URL: molester.com?
I agree with the polar bear.
The BBC is known for writing articles one sentence at a time.
It’s nothing you did. It drives me nuts too.
Six-year-olds need adults to train them in computer skills? What a revolutionary concept. I’d always understood it was the other way round...
FR’s formatting just reveals what truly is.
In the link, it only looks like paragraphs because they’re in a more confined space. There are only two *paragraphs* near the end of the article composed to two sentences each. I’ve noticed this often with articles from this source.
Since I tend not to read most American publications, I haven’t really noticed it in ours. I’ll have to pay more attention.
LMAO
I think that in many cases, elementary school children are indeed viewed as "tech support" for those of us whose formative years occurred prior to the home computer revolution :-)
No real need to do so, unless you're eager for frustration and disappointment at seeing the breathtakingly oafish and inarticulate level of discourse put forth by so many who are tasked with being "professional communicators" :-)
Well over 20 years ago, when I was working on finishing up my degree, I had to take a college writing course. What I saw then was enough to make my head spin. It was horrendous what kids were handing in for their final project.
It was an 8-10 page, double spaced, one inch margin review of a movie or book. Not too hard to get the physical parameters right,... Right?
Wrong.
Not only were they not capable of getting that stuff right, the grammar was unbelievable. The one girl who actually was able to produce about the right amount of material, handed her final paper in with corrections made in purple flair all over it. Most of the things that she *corrected* were indeed wrong, but the corrections weren’t right either. Other things she changed were right in the first place; she changed them to wrong.
I don’t know how some of these kids expected to get out of college. Come to think of it, I don’t know how they got IN.
I know things have not improved.
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Your perceptions mirror my own college experiences. Students writing at an elementary-school level or below, my having to stop myself from correcting my English "teachers" more than absolutely necessary, students lining up at my desk to have grammar-related questions answered or their papers proofread while the 'teacher' sits alone at his desk (I had to put a stop to that as his embarrassment would quite likely have affected my grades) and to top it all off, my English 101 instructor asking me for permission to use my papers as teaching tools in his classes next quarter.
When one looks over my posts at Free Republic one does not see an accomplished expert wordsmith, one sees a scruffy stoat with occasional fleas who obviously has no particular gift of erudition. The accolades I received in college over my supposed English prowess serve to mean nothing more to me than an indictment of a substandard, unprofessional and a truly embarrassing norm within academia.
There are times when I feel that it's time to emulate the Book People of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and find a way to save the language before it's completely lost to sloth.
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