This week I had the privilege of being a judge at google campus with NSPCC, coadec and futuregov. Having been involved in the short listing for the past few weeks which included conference calls and web-chats on NSPCCs custom made social network platform named n-spire. It was a fantastic experience to finally choose the winner.
The short listers were as follows:
Twoten- Filtering service that grows with the child, ensuring age appropriate content. @TwoTen_is
Digital disruption- Campaign to teach kids to think critically about their online experience using gaming and educational tools @digidisrupt
2ndfriend- Providing a counselling service to young people who need to talk anything cyberspace. @Second_Friend
The thought process tapped into a lot of experienced mindsets ranging from parents, industry leaders and a leading children's charity to one of the country's leading psychologists.
Judging Panel:
Jon Brown - NSPCC, Head of Strategy and Development
Dominic Campbell-Future Gov
Jeff Lynn - Co-founder and CEO at Seedrs
Dr Linda Papadopoulos - One of the most well-known and respected
psychologists working in the UK today.
Ciarán Weir- NSPCC young ambassador
Hamza Latif- NSPCC young ambassador
Young people from the NSPCCs influential participation unit played an instrumental part in the event. Having worked directly with the home office, foreign office and Microsoft on cyber space issues. They brought their skills, experience and expertise. They grilled the short listers offering their feedback which in true P-Unit style was both constructive and positive.
There were a few continuous themes throughout the event which was held at google campus in London. One being how industry should consider and consult young people when developing software to protect them.
The other which was how crucial it is that we find the balance of protecting children and young people online without infringing on their right to privacy.
Moving forward, I feel like the message was heard loud and clear.
The winner was twoten which was praised for it's respect for young people's privacy and the empowerment for parents to safely filter web activity without directly interfering. They will be awarded a space at google campus to further develop their software, with a space to pick some google minds.
Ciarán Weir
For more info on the event you can follow @SimplCo