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It just clicked for Catriona
Shortly after the session started, Perth High School learning support teacher Catriona Laing realised she was on the wrong course.
She'd simply gone to learn about internet safety from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre - not to learn how to teach the complex subject.
However, the course inspired her so much to spread the message about internet safety that she ended up spearheading a Council-wide campaign across Perth and Kinross, representing the UK at the European Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg and she has been appointed a member of CEOP's Education Advisory Board.
Catriona is Principal Teacher of Guidance, Child Protection Officer and Head of House at Perth High School, the largest school in Perth and Kinross, with around 1,500 pupils.
However, in 2007 she was a learning support teacher and, with two young children, was becoming aware of the vulnerability of children to the potential dangers on the internet.
She said: "The internet is a fantastic learning resource and a great new technology for young people to embrace, but there are dangers in how it can be used, particularly with social networking applications and mobile phones.
"That's why I wanted to find out more and signed up for a CEOP Thinkuknow training session.
"However, I didn't realise that this course was specifically about teaching people about the potential dangers of using the internet. But it didn't matter in the end as the course was great."
At school, Catriona used her new knowledge about the popular applications young people use and the issues that they face online to teach a few classes with some of the older children - and received a great response.
She said: "The children really enjoyed talking about the issues and could identify with some of the subjects that came up, such a cyberbullying and 'sexting' - sending indecent photos of people which are then circulated to a wider audience - as well as being interested in talking about associated issues such as downloading illegal files and viruses."
Such was the positive response from the school that Catriona was supported in taking it to the next level, to gain CEOP Ambassador training so she could train teachers to give pupils up-to-date internet safety education.
The Ambassador course not only looked at how young people use the internet and mobile technology but also how offenders use the online environment to groom those young people.
Armed with this knowledge, she rolled out CEOP's Thinkuknow training to her Guidance colleagues. In turn, they delivered internet safety education to every one of the school's pupils during Personal, Social, Health and Education lessons as part of a two-week whole-school focus on internet safety planned and co-ordinated by Catriona.
During the course of the Perth High project, Catriona quickly became aware that the need for internet safety education was not limited purely to her own school and that the issues raised there, along with the need for a programme of education, were relevant across all schools.
Unknown to her, a colleague within Perth and Kinross Council who had also attended the Thinkuknow and Ambassador training sessions, was also keen to develop internet safety education across schools.
Gordon McKay, Training and Development Officer for Perth & Kinross Child Protection Committee, had also recognised a significant need.
However, their enthusiasm was not matched by a high turnout for their separately run Thinkuknow sessions. Therefore, they decided to collaborate in a presentation to the council's senior education managers to promote the roll-out of internet safety education across all schools in a "top down" approach.
Catriona said: "The Council's Child Protection Committee and Senior Education Management Team were hugely supportive of the proposal. Chris Webb, Director of Education at that time, after hearing of the issues raised and feedback received during the school project, actually said that if they did not do this now, they would scoring an own-goal."
Catriona and Gordon's plan resulted in an authority-wide programme co-ordinated by a small focus group and included the training of more than 300 staff, primarily primary and secondary teachers.
As well as teachers, the council also provided training for its community link workers, social workers, educational psychologists and staff in the voluntary sector. Awareness raising sessions took place with parents and council workers to ensure comprehensive coverage of the issues.
As a result of their work in Perth and Kinross, the project team was given the prestigious Provost's Award - the highest recognition in the Council's annual employees awards - and Catriona was selected by CEOP to represent the UK at the European Safer Internet Forum in Luxembourg.
Her passion about internet safety continues and she has become a member of CEOP's Education Advisory Board.
However, despite all the campaigns, training and school lessons, Catriona believes the challenge of managing child internet safety will remain: "The internet is always evolving so you have to keep up with new developments." For more information, visit http://ceop.police.uk
CEOP targets the predators
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. It does this through tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.
In the past five years, 1,038 children have been safeguarded or protected as a direct result of CEOP's intelligence reports and/or deployment of CEOP resources. In the same period, 1,644 child sex offenders have been arrested and 394 networks dismantled.
The focus of the CEOP Centre is intelligence: how offenders operate and think, how children and young people behave and how technology is developing.
It uses this intelligence to develop its "Thinkuknow" resources for professionals working with young people, to provide education on the ways new technologies can put young people at risk.
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Did you know?
Over the last three years more than eight million young people have been educated through CEOP's Thinkuknow programme.