Sparklebox - still dodgy?

[madamimadam]

I'm not sure if I'm right on this - but with a bit of luck, you will be:

My DS came home from the Surestart centre today with a 'colouring in page'. The credit on the page is 'Sparklebox'.

Am I right in thinking that the site was set up by a man who's been convicted of paedophilia?

I don't want to get a lynch mob out but just want to know if a) he still runs it or b) the site still benefits him financially.

If either's the case, I'm sure the centre have used the materials unknowingly but I do want to let them know the genesis of the material they're using if this is still the case. But I thought I'd check first to see If Sparklebox has been bought out by an unconnected company.

Anyway, thought you'd know better than I do (all the searches on here turn up threads from the start of last year)

TIA

We still can't access it from school computers here.

Some teachers and TAs do chose to use it still. Our LEA has o guidelines on its use or even the name remaining on printouts, but the site is blocked. I chose not to use it in my work at all.

Thanks, Hula.

I have real reservations about a Sure Start centre using materials with this provenance too. I know they're working on a shoestring etc but there must be other sites out there that don't have the same history. I'll draw them myself, if it comes to it.

I'll take it up with SS as I don't want to tacitly condone the use of these materials. As I said, I'm sure they used it in all innocence but who wants to give a company like that any distribution?

There are other sites yes. Quick google would bring up lots of alternatives for them. or they could create their own resources cheap enough too, although takes longer and needs some ict skills.

Thanks, Hulababy. That's very much appreciated.

We still have a few SB resources around nursery and school. The reasoning behind it is that it has cost money to print and laminate and lots of time to cut out etc. and we already had them before the site owner's crimes were made public. We refuse to access or download new materials either, even staff at home, and as we replace resources we make them ourselves or look at other websites (but this all takes time.
I personally break copyright and cover the SB logo! I'd really not advertise the site in case parents that don't know the history see the logo and use it at home.

The owner of Sparklebox still receives money each time his site is visited, so it's not even about it having a 'history'.