Concerns Over Sparklebox!

[Guest]

hi all,

 

This may be something settings want to look into and make their own judgement on.

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Subject

Sparklebox

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

You may well have received this information from other sources - the information came to me from Liz Hall - DCO London NE

 

God bless John S.

 

Hi everyone - I have been forwarded some correspondence from Essex County Council regarding the website Sparklebox ( a downloading resource for preschools, schools, toddler groups etc) as follows:

 

"Some local authorities are blocking access to this website because the site:

is operating illegally in that the company has no registration with the Data Protection Registrar

signposts users to an untrusted social networking site

offers the download of a toolbox with an unknown 'payload' which could be collecting browsing history or initiate an attack on Pre-school/ school systems immediately or in the future.

 

Also, it has recently come to public attention that the creator / operator of the site is a known sex offender who has just been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for children pornography. This raises concerns as to the web links from the Sparklebox website."

 

ECC has not blocked access to their practitioners, but they are advising them not to access it via ECC laptops or PCs and that if the toolbar is downloaded it is deleted and obviously that the website is not recommended - please pass this information on and ensure that those in your teams and fellowships who might be using it to support kids activities are aware.

 

Many thanks

[wellerkaren]

there has been a link regarding this on the home page for a while about this but I am unsure where it can be found now

[JacquieL]

Thanks for that Lucie. We were already made aware of issues around Sparklebox which we had flagged up in the Home page for a while and there is a link here