First meeting of the Steering Group

The Steering Group for this project met for the first time yesterday. Representatives of the BBC, Learning & Teaching Scotland, Scottish libraries, Strathclyde Police attended along with school and college representatives. It was a very positive meeting with support for developments to date and an endorsement of the planned future action.

There was a strong consensus around the general approach that should be embodied within the qualification and associated materials -- education not prohibition. It was noted that many centres often banned access to many Internet resources but it was felt that this simply transferred the problem to outside of school - where pupils often had unrestricted access at home or Internet cafes or (increasingly) on mobile devices. So the qualification should seek to educate users to use the Internet responsibly rather than attempting to control access.