Enjoy Online

If you're here visiting from Godstowe school, firstly let me say thanks - for showing myself and Steve Lamb such hospitality and for fulfilling your part of the bargain by coming here to take up my challenge. For those who weren't at Godstowe school, then I am very happy if these words can help as many people as possible get the full potential out of the web, without living in fear of the unknown.

Steve and I went along to the school to talk to the students and their parents about staying safe online, especially in the rapidly growing area of social media.

One of the hardest things about working in technology is the speed at which everything changes. It's not like other industries where you learn a set of skills and then that is what you use for the rest of your life. It's important to keep up with new developments, new languages & directions. It's hard work, and is especially true of social media, which has really taken off in the last few years.

To give you an idea, 6 years ago there was no Facebook. Now 400 million people plus are linked together on it's pages.

 Youtube, which streams 1.2billion clips a day worldwide, is just 5 years old.

If you're still in school you'll probably be used to this rapid change. Most of you will have had technology, computers and mobile phones, around you for pretty much all your life. But spare a thought for your parents... for this generation it is all totally new. I was born in 1968, which makes me 42. I'm still a young woman, probably about the same age as any parents reading this. But this was what home computing was about the year I was born.

Torrow's World 1967 - in particular I think the last 30 seconds make some surprisingly poignant predictions, despite how old fashioned the film appears.

Because of this culture gap, many parents feel they don't have as much knowledge about computers as their children, but this shouldn't stop them from enjoying technology. It's an unavoidable part of life – an extension of life that can be truly rewarding. But then we hear stories in the news like the tragic case of a 17 year old girl who was murdered earlier this year by a contact she met on Facebook. This kind of tragedy doesn't happen very often - but avoiding them is really easy if you follow a few simple rules. Like crossing the road. Everyone knows that you can get killed crossing the road right? But you don't stop your children from doing it. You equip them with the knowledge they need to stay safe while still enjoying everything the other side of the road has to offer.

Social media is a great way to stay in touch with friends & family, but there are also lots of ways for you to meet new people. It might be people you chat to about a hobby or sport you have in common – say you met them on a discussion board about fashion and you have the same taste in clothes. It's fine to exchange messages with them on the public boards, in the same way you might find yourself having a chat with someone in the queue at Top Shop because you both picked up the same dress. But you wouldn't give that person in the queue your home address or phone number – after all they are a stranger. The same applies online – in fact more so because being online is like standing in that queue with your eyes closed. Not everyone is honest about who they are online, for many many reasons, very few of which are actually as sinister as murder. It might be that they don't like the colour of their hair so they pretend to be something else... Essentially that 15 year old fashionista you have so much in common with could be someone else entirely. EVERYONE you meet online is a stranger, and the rules here are no different from the real world. They are not a real friend until they are a REAL friend.