It is funny how the skills that we were teaching teachers (and still are) now need to be taught to children so that they can assume control- not in all cases though because teachers need to present their images too. Most of the 9-11 children I come across seem to use Google image searches and the local firewall forces a safe search. This does return a lot of rubbish though and there are copyright issues. I feel that teachers probably need a couple of one stop shops for photos because there just isn’t time to spend hours trawling. Most of the image banks designed for schools and RBC collections still seem too small to return a reliable result. At the moment my advice is still to use a Flickr advanced search with a Creative Commons filter and I am waiting for an easy to use tool that will capture the image credit seamlessly.

Has anyone got a good alternative to using Flickr?

Inappropriate content is always an issue and I think that safe search options, together with corporate filtering are worthwhile using but all children either have or will be exposed to something inappropriate, often at home. Many schools that I visit have no working policy for internet safety and this is something that I am keen to pursue in local schools; the Byron Review (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/byronreview/) has done a sensible job of putting the wheels in motion with a refreshingly measured response to the issue.