The Childnet STAR Toolkit (www.childnet.com/star) is a free online resource that offers practical advice and teaching activities to help secondary schools explore internet safety with young people with autism spectrum disorders.

The four sections SAFE, TRUST, ACTION and RESPECT all feature the concept of friendship and emphasise the importance of finding the balance between online and offline interaction. At the same time, the resource is continually promoting a positive, fun and safe experience for young people with ASD.

You can access the resource Here.

If you think your messages to your Facebook friends are private, think again. The social network announced that it has plans to look at your personal conversations as a way to make more profits from targeted advertising.

Read the article here.

Hannah Smith was bombarded with vile messages telling her to kill herself. Posts on the website Ask.fm told her to drink bleach, that she was a slut, and encouraged her to take her own life. Last summer, she was found hanged in her room.

But the messages were not from internet trolls - 98% of the messages had come from the same IP address as Hannah's, with about four posts that had not.

Read the article here

New resource and classroom activity for secondary/high school students. The activity looks at a personal profile and students are required to identify positive and negative features and content.

See the resource here.

"The amount of money that Google and other commercial companies will pour into robotics and artificial intelligence could at last take it truly into the commercial world where we actually do have smart robots roaming our streets."

 Read more here

11 Tips For Students To Manage Their Digital Footprints

by Justin Boyle

If you've scratched your head over suggestions to manage your "digital footprint," you aren't the only one.

A surprisingly large percentage of people have never even heard the phrase, let alone thought about how to manage theirs responsibly. Among students, the percentage is probably higher. Read more here