Facebook Pages will be upgrade to Timeline from March 30th’2012 allowing organisations, projects and businesses to express themselves more visually to their target audience. ‘YOU WHAT! HOW? Hang on just got my head around the last format!” Don’t panic below is some information and links to get yourself up to speed.

Starting today, when you visit your Page, you will see a message at the top of your Page allowing you to preview your Page in the new design. Please note that when you turn this view on, your new Page design will only be visible to you and other admins. People who visit your Page will not be able to see your Page in the new design until you choose to publish your new design. For the next four weeks, you’ll be able to experiment with the new design in a safe environment. You can add milestones, a cover photo, as well as other content. That content won’t go live to the public. You may also go back to previous posts and star important ones to feature them on your timeline.

(Please note that posts that you make on your Page and changes you make to your profile picture will be visible to the public. However, starring posts, adding a cover photo, adding a milestone, or pinning a post won’t be visible unless you choose to publish your new Page design before March 30, 2012. )

Major new Facebook Page features include the option to:

➢ Have a cover image across the top of the Facebook page.
➢ Pin posts to the top of the feed for one week.
➢ Receive and respond to private messages from fans.
➢ Highlight feature posts from amongst your page feed.

Cover Photo:Size of image; 851 x 315 pixes.

Choose an image which conveys the essence of your organisation, project or business an showcases our product or services.

Profile image:Size of image: 180 x 180 pixes.

Choose a logo that people associate with your organisation, project or business.

Here are some resources for getting started:

Facebook Pages product guide

http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Pages_Product_Guide_022712.pdf

View example Pages

https://www.facebook.com/about/pages

Read general FAQs

https://www.facebook.com/help/pages/new-design

Top tips:

- The new Facebook page timeline works best if you are using ‘images’ and ‘film footage’, so invest some time to review your archives and do some google and youtube searches for content that would appeal to your viewers. (remember to reference accordingly and your have the relevant media consent etc.)

- Go through and review your Facebook page timeline, check your history. Can your highlight previous content to make the page appeal to your target audience (young people, community members, investors.)

- Be brave and remove content that is not applicable or offering added value.

One of the biggest considerations for youth practitioners and teachers is the new PRIVATE MESSAGING option on Facebook Pages. You have the option as the admin to activate this or not (this is accessible on the ADMIN PANNEL, located to the top right hand side under the help button.) As a provision or educational establishment this could be a very useful tool to engage with your online community members. However there needs to be critical reflection about the capacity to respond to messages and signposting to off line services if required.

Film clip from Mashable about the impact of the changes and brand management.

Check out this good advice from Mashable: If you have a social media plan that’s working for you, stick to it. If your plan could use some adjustments, now would be a good time to see what has been working and what hasn’t and how Timeline can assist with some improvements. If you’re winging your social media plan day-by-day, this is a good time to sit down and hash out why you have a Facebook Page in the first place. (Jim Belosic, Timeline for Brands: How to Prepare for Your Company’s New Facebook Page. 1st March’12)

Thanks to the Facebook team for emailing and sharing helpful information and links to share with my online community network.

60 youth organisations representing hundreds of thousands thousands of children and young people believe reforms must be made to the Editors Code and Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in a bid for a fairer, more balanced press in the UK.

Come get involved and challenge then continued negative portrayal of young people in national and local press (online & offline):

Please Please please make sure you and your young people:

- Stat and keep tweeting – I support #presschange4youth #leveson

- Join the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Presschange4youth/205269782905202

- Have your picture taken with the statement and upload everywhere

- Write an article/blog (send to the Youth Media Agency team and they will showcase on the their site)

– Sign the epetition – http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29003

Contact details of The Youth Agency Team e-mail Susana@youthmediaagency.org.uk
Twitter: @YouthMediaA Facebook:Youth Media Agency web: www.youthmediaagency.org.uk

Online Youth Outreach endorsed the submission of a document to the Leveson Inquiry and the current debates within the Press Complaints Commission and Press Board of Finance about the culture, ethics and regulation of journalism in the UK as it provided an opportunity to highlight potential discriminatory practice by the print media with regards to children and young people. This submission by The Youth Agency Team makes a number of recommendations to effect improvements around the Press Complaints Commission procedures and the Editors Code of Practice itself which hopes to find support from the Leveson Inquiry team. We support the four recommendations will help to improve press coverage of children and young people in the future, and so engender more interest and trust among young readers.

The four recommendations made by the youth organisations to the Leveson Inquiry are:

1. That ‘age’ be included as a classification of discrimination in the Editors Code Clause 12.i, such as in the NUJ Code of Conduct 9 which should be amended to: ‘Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation’.

2. That a new clause be added both to the Editors Code and the NUJ Code of Conduct that reflects the damage caused by generalising negatively around children and young people. For example: ‘Journalists should exercise a duty of care and avoid negative generalisations about children and young people’.

3. That the Press Complaints Commission is made more accessible to children and young people and the PCC develop a ‘child and young person friendly’ interface on their website with language that is accessible to children and young people.

4. That the Press Complaints Commission ensures someone within the organisation has trained skills in working directly with children and young people in order to handle their complaints with sensitivity and discretion.

Are the media and regulatory processes discriminatory against Children & Young People?

“When a photo of a group of perfectly ordinary lads standing around wearing hooded tops has become visual shorthand for urban menace, or even the breakdown of society, it’s clear that teenage boys have a serious image problem. The teen boys’ “brand” has become toxic. Media coverage of boys is unrelentingly negative…our research shows that the media is helping make teenage boys fearful of each other.” Fiona Bawdon, Women in Journalism.

“Newspapers and TV have in the past demonised and stereotyped young people..” Nick Clegg, Deputy PM1
“Media reporting of children is mainly hostile” Polly Toynbee, Guardian Columnist
“…the media should try and report on children and young people in a fair and balanced way” Boris Johnson
“It feels like everyday there is another news story denigrating young people” Shami Chakrabarti, Liberty

In 2008 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged that the UK government take ‘urgent measures to address the intolerance and inappropriate characterization of children, especially adolescents, within society, including the media…’ For over 5 years, there have been countless campaigns on this issue, with little success. This submission will highlight particular evidential reference to research carried out by Women in Journalism, Children and Young People Now, Citizenship Foundation, Children’s Rights Alliance for England, UK Youth Media Council, Youth Media Agency, British Youth Council, Barnardos and Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust.

Misrepresentation of young people in the Media – showing imbalance

- 76% of press coverage of young people is negative. (Children and Young People Now 2009)

- “Young people are, on the whole, not asked or given the opportunity to comment in an article which involves young people, especially if the article is negative”. Tom Webb, 21.

- “I felt overwhelmed with the way the riots was publicised and was very scared. There are no real positive role models in the press especially for me a young black boy”. 15 yr old.

- ‘We are a group of 14-year-old boys from the Reclaim project; we have been approached by so many different newspapers, magazines and TV companies, most of who want to talk to us about guns and knives and gangs. We keep trying to explain that we are not involved in gangs and crime; we’re doing positive things in this area – and then journalists go away, as they tell us that’s not the story people are interested in…’ Open letter from Manchester-based Reclaim, published in Guardian, 25 August 2008.

Generalisations of all children and young people in a negative light

- 85% of teen boys said newspapers portray them in a bad light. Echo, 2009 for Women in Journalism

- 79% of children and young people feel that adults see them in a negative light. Youth Media Agency Pilot Survey, November 2011.

- What the papers say – ‘What word other than “feral” better describes the swarms of hooligans abandoned to their own devices by slattern mothers and absentee “babyfathers”? No one crosses the road if they spot a crocodile of Boy Scouts coming in the other direction. But nor does anyone in their right mind risk walking through a scrum of hoodies hogging the pavement – not unless they fancy a knife in their ribs.’ Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail,18 November 2008.

Case Study – August Riots Thomas Hammerberg from the Council of Europe raised an issue with the media’s coverage of the August riots, which from the onset singled out children and young people as the rioters, despite only 26% being 10-17. In a survey to find out the views of young people on the riots, one teenager commented on the media’s unfair coverage of the events: “I saw a headline which said ‘teenagers rob local shop’. It’s stupid because you wouldn’t say ‘adults rob the local shop.

”http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=26583

WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES?

Quotes:
1 Quotes taken from Another Perspective, Children’s Rights Alliance for England, 2009

Tuesday 7th Feb was Safer Internet Day (#SID2012) this year’s theme was ‘Connecting generations and educating each other’, and the slogan “Discover the digital World together…safely!”

Beat Bullying have just released “Virtual Violence II: Progress and Challenges in the Fight against Cyberbullying” commissioned by Nominet Trust and in collaboration with the National Association of Head Teachers. It will be unveiled in a hard-hitting Panorama documentary which aired on the BBC (Monday 6th Feb) and reveals that cyberbullying, as a weapon of choice amongst the nation’s youth, is showing no signs of dissipating, with 350,222 children – or 1 in 13 – experiencing persistent and intentional cyberbullying, with just under a quarter (23%) reporting that the bullying lasted for a year or more, and two in five (40%) said that it lasted for months or weeks. If you missed the Panorama report check it out online on BCCiPlayer.

My contrubtion to SID was to support and help Stephn Carrick-Davies on creating complemtary acivity session plans to be used in conjunction with the newly created Munch, Poke, Ping films. These films explore how social media and mobile phone technology affects young people’s peer relationships, behaviour and identity and how they cope when there is conflict online.

The project works directly with young people who are, or who feel, excluded and uses film-making to help ‘unlock’ and explore young people’s experience of growing up online. All the films on this website have been devised and acted by young people who have been excluded from main-stream schools and being taught in Pupil Referral Units.

Check out the MUNCH, POKE, PING website to review the films and the resources created.

When developing, delivering & evaluating E-safety messages and activities consider the following:

RELEVANCY It is important to identify the understanding and young people’s experiences specifically on internet safety. Be considerate and initially explore issues about sharing photos (consent to post images & images appropriate to be posted) experiences of online cyber bullying. If you haven’t run a session with young people about cyberbullying there are some excellent resources designed specifically for secondary schools see www.digizen.org, http://cybermentors.org.uk and http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk Start from the relatively ‘low impact, high incidence’ risks as this may be more productive than starting from ‘high impact, low incidence’ risks.

REALISTIC – Asking young people not to tag themselves on any photos on a social network site is highly unlikely. Be realistic, instead safety messages should focus on supporting young people to think critically about what and with whom they share photos or comments with online. Social network sites do offer privacy and account settings options, however, they can be complex. Break down the information into ‘bite-size’ sections i.e. sharing personal information, photos security settings, posting messages etc.

POSITIVE – Activities and advice based on fear can have unintended consequences and negative impacts upon young people’s use of social media. It is important that safety messages and interventions are delivered in a balanced manner which encourages and supports young people to consider the positive and negative aspects of online social networking. Often a focus on the positive aspects of SNS will provide an opportunity to talk about safety and sensible conduct.

Related reading work reviewing:
Taken Out of Context, American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics by Danah Boyd
Policy and the Internet – collection of journals. (info via @wellbeinghq many thanks)

Do you use skype? Or know of someone who uses skype? Never used Skype? Over 170 million people use skype.

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free. Use the instant messaging service, share document for free and you can do web conferencing. I use it to keep in contact with friends and family both in the UK and internationally. I also use it within a professional capacity to communicate with clients, colleagues and young people.

Overview of SKYPE

Positives aspects for using Sykpe to connect with people:

Easy to use and it’s free. My grandfather aged 90 years uses skype!

It saves the cost of travel, time spent traveling and hire of a meeting venue. It also allows flexibility to move an appointment, if there are unexpected deadlines or a crisis.

In my experience some young people are more open and honest, possibly as they feel disinhibited to express themselves within their own home.

When working with hard to reach young people, it can be helpful to use skype to keep in touch in between appointments, follow up checks or activities to help strengthen the ‘trust’ between a youth practitioner and the young person. Also if a young person has a question that they don’t feel comfortable asking directly they can ask on Skype or use the Skype instant messaging service.

You can send documents (even HUGE ones.) for FREE. I find this so helpful that you can send a document that is being discussed with a client or a helpful training advice sheet for a young person.

You don’t have to wear any makeup to hold a skype voice chat converstation – YES!

Last year (July 2011) Facebook launched a new video chat product, powered by Skype – video chat.Click HERE for a film clip of Mark Zuckerberg showcasing the new function: “This type of thing is only possible because of the social infrastructure that already exists”

Considerations for when using skype:

It’s good that a young people has to catch the bus by themselves, enter a new venue and hold a meeting with a youth adviser. It helps prepare them for future work/college interviews and how to present themselves to people outsider their community.

Occasionally the quality of the call can be poor, but often by re-dialing can help improve the line.

Some young people may not have a computer with a camera and microphone or the digital competencies to create a skype account.

Privacy – The computer maybe located in a shared family space so there is lack of privacy to discuss sensitive issues or that simply they want to meet face-to-face to discuss their query or source information.

Be clear about your purpose for using skype, what is your role and the service your organisation offers to young people and partner organisations. The skype call can easily migrate from you offering specific support offered by your organisation to nattering about everything under the sun. Young people are very savvy at changing the conversation and it’s important to maintain ‘professional boundaries’.

Be clear when, duration and how often you can ‘talk online’, some young people especially isolated vulnerable young people may possibly try to establish contact with increased frequency. The key is to contract clear boundaries and expectations at the beginning and reference as required. If concerned keep a record and share this with your manager during supervision or immediately if there are safeguarding concerns.

Can you RECORD a Sykpe conversation? Yes there is Evaer which supports recording Skype video calls to your hard disk with side-by-side, separate files, audio-only, local-webcam-only and remote-webcam-only modehttp://www.evaer.com. There are other on the markey, have a search around for which best fits your requirements.

Helpful information:

Help to set up a skype account – click here
Managing your Skype privacy settings – click here

Group video calling with Skype