CM CLUB: **EXCELLENT Site for anyone in Child Care and even parents!!!

[PinkChick]

www.sparklebox.co.uk/md/addsub/addsub10.html

Just been directed to this site after enquiring about helping my own daughter with her spelling/writing etc...

My local school use this site and i am very xcited with all the resources available for us to download FREE!!!!

yy I use that site, v good indeed

bumping for others

Perhaps you should read this before you decide to use these resources:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/786038-Any-primary-teachers-around-who-are-willing-to-help-a?pagingOff= 1

Thanks for that Tanith, just read newspaper article, it's shocking.

...so is he still running the site/have access to it?, can he hack into anything if we down laod the paperwork??

He can't do anything at the moment because he's languishing at Her Majesty's Pleasure for the next year or so. I heard there may be some sort of security thing with the toolbar in case it sends images for him or something. Anyone else know any more about that?

I'll still happily use Sparklebox, it's a great resource.

What can the man do? I can't see he is getting kicks from people downloading things??

He can evidently do a lot!
Are you using the toolbar? Because they still don't know exactly what it does. Does it load porn to a remote computer through yours, perhaps? Maybe it collects details of what you store on your computer, including photos of children (remember, he's been convicted twice of making indecent images of children).

I would guess that OFSTED could legitimately question your commitment to Child Protection if you were promoting a convicted paedophile's material in your setting.
You might ask yourself why these resources were free. How did he make his money? Perhaps you don't want to inquire too closely...
He's admitted that the toolbar generates money for him, but hasn't explained how. Simple market research or something else?

At the very least, I imagine that every hit to his site is making him money. I suppose that's a matter for your own conscience, though.

I've been trawling through newspaper articles and other reports on the internet and this article may make you think about whether you want to use/promote this site:

www.brendenisteaching.com/sparkle.php

I agree that the site was a great resource but do I want to use/promote a site owned by a convicted paedophile, NO I personally don't.

The article at the website above is truly shocking.

He's still making money from the advertisers. So stop using it ladies! Maybe they will pull out if the hit rate goes down.

Thanks for that link Tan1959 - taken from there - "There is no risk of the toolbar being used to send your personal information to Sparklebox because the toolbar was generated by Conduit, a company that only allows limited modification of its generated toolbars. Conduit does keep logs of internet searches you make using the toolbar, but it has not been detected to record anything else at this time.".

I don't have the toolbar and wasn't aware there was one anyway.

At the end of the day I have a few resources from Sparklebox like labels and nameplates which I will continue to use.

If Ofsted (or anyone else) think that it questions our commitment to child protection by having a few Sparklebox things about the setting then they are more stupid they I thought.

This is from the Hertfordshire Grid for Learning - "There is no evidence that there is any danger from using the Sparklebox website and people can still access the site from home, however schools and settings should consider the ethics of using a site which could potentially be providing the owner with an income, or resources which are heavily labelled to promote the Sparklebox brand."

I think this is why people should consider stopping using it.