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Adults must impose the necessary checks and balances to keep children safe online, says the children's commissioner for Wales.

"All children and young people don't seem much of a distinction between their online and offline lives,"

Mr Towler told BBC Radio Wales. "It's all just one thing and they get really excited by the opportunities the internet affords and sometimes parents get a little scared about that and worried about what their children are accessing." 'Crossing the road' Continue reading the main story “Start Quote They're all running around with handheld computers these days, they're not just on phones ” End Quote Keith Towler Children's commissioner Mr Towler said he talks to children in lots of different settings and they "still enjoy playing outside as much as they ever did". He said we need to recognise that the internet provides fantastic opportunities for education and learning and its making sure that children access that safely. He said that was a real challenge for parents and carers. "It's a bit like crossing the road, you try to teach your children the best way of crossing the road well. We need to teach our children the best way of using this fantastic resource. "I think too many parents are very very scared of the internet and because they're so scared they will say 'Oh I don't understand it'". Handheld computers The commissioner also praised Hwb, the virtual learning environment, which he said provides protection for children using the web in schools. Mr Towler said: "We've got to get parents and carers to recognise that children do operate in the digital world. They're all running around with handheld computers these days, they're not just on phones. "They can access whatever they want whenever they want and parents need to engage on that. " "We need to remember that children and young people are much more savvy than sometimes we think they are, and they are much more responsible than sometimes adults think they are so its not all doom and gloom. "What we need to do is put the right checks and balances in place and what children always want from parents and carers is to understand what the boundaries are, and that's our job to do that." Sangeet Bhullar, executive director of Wise Kids, added that the digital landscape was "evolving rapidly" and up-to-date data was needed on how children and young people in Wales related to it. More on This Story .related-links-list li { position: relative; } .related-links-list .gvl3-icon { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; } Related Stories Web safety lessons urged for infants 05 FEBRUARY 2013, EDUCATION &amp; FAMILY Online chat 'should be monitored' 22 JANUARY 2013, TECHNOLOGY Body to promote digital teaching 22 JUNE 2012, WALES $render("page-see-also","ID"); $render("page-newstracker","ID"); Related Internet links Children's Commissioner for Wales The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites $render("page-related-items","ID"); Share this pageShare this pageShareFacebookTwitter Email Print In association with $render("advert","advert-sponsor-module","page-bookmark-links"); $render("advert-post-script-load"); $render("advert-post-script-load"); More Wales stories RSS Army base shuts in defence shake-up An Army base in Pembrokeshire is to close with 600 troops transferred to St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. Soldiers' conman jailed three years Wales recall Warburton and Jones <!--

A Year After the Closing of Megaupload, a File-Sharing Tycoon Opens a New Site

Kim Dotcom opened his new file-storage Web site to the public — one year to the minute after the police raided the mansion he rents in New Zealand.

Megaupload

Pirate Bay says it was 'persecuted for beliefs of freedom' but analysts say site is still likely being routed through Europe

The Pirate Bay, the notorious file-sharing site that was ejected from Sweden last week, claimed to have set up shop in North Korea on Monday.

The Pirate Bay is a popular site that hosts links to torrented material, though a separate program is required to download the links' content. This function puts the Pirate Bay in a legal grey area in most countries though it has been the subject of many lawsuits.

ou're not paying for your presence on the web, then you're

just a product being used by an organisation bigger than you

When you use a free web service you're the underclass. At best you're a guest. At worst you're a beggar, couchsurfing the web and scavenging for crumbs. It's a cliché but worth repeating: if you're not paying for it, you're aren't the customer, you're the product.

Campaigners say Google are encouraging the poaching of elephants by running advertisements promoting ivory products.

more than 10,000 ads about ivory were running on Google's Japanese shopping site.

one of the world’s richest and successful technology companies with such incredible resources had taken no action to enforce their own policies

Google is not only the world's largest search engine, it's one of the top three email providers, a social network, and owner of the Blogger platform and the world's largest video site, YouTube. Facebook has the social contacts, messages, wallposts and photos of more than 750 million people.

The site also lists my most recent sent and received emails (in both cases a "no subject" conversation thread with a colleague).

The big relief comes when I note Google isn't tracking the internet searches I've made on my work account

A new breed of social media websites is leaving young people open to cyber bullying, with anonymous users able to bombard others with sexually explicit messages and demands.

Despite little mainstream media coverage, “question and answer” websites such as ask.fm, qooh.me and formspring.me have exploded in popularity

The anonymity provided by the sites has made them a hotbed for sexual pressure, bullying and abuse.

irst, research shows that social-networking sites are a serious risk when accessed at work.

Facebook at work". It may sound ridiculous, but the purpose is to ensure that employees are not putting their personal and corporate data out to tender.

The second reason is that once uploaded, personal details can become public possession - and not just for now but, effectively, forever. News Corp bought MySpace to exploit what previously had been unthinkable to advertisers: customers telling you what they want without you even asking.

his description of modern slaves cum “hostages” is particularly applicable to our relationship to the internet.

Moreover, much of non-work related internet use is actually work insofar as it generates wealth for others.

as well as networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, that we are held hostage.

I would like my browsing and Google searches to be private. I don't want targeted advertising and I don't want to feel that anonymous companies are harvesting my clicks to learn all about me.

When the web was young, and a lot less shiny, web pages were fixed (static) and – barring browser quirks – everybody saw much the same thing. Today, much of the web is dynamic, which means that what you see has been adapted or possibly constructed on the fly just for you.

From your point of view, the advantage is that the websites you visit will be personalised to suit your needs and tastes. From the website's point of view, the advantage is that it can also personalise its prices and advertising to try to suit your needs and tastes, and increase your propensity to click and buy.

After three days he found it: the boundary between 'real life' and 'online' has disappeared

If my grandchildren ever ask me where I was when I realised the internet was over – they won't, of&nbsp;course, because they'll be too&nbsp;busy playing with the teleportation console

If Web 2.0 was the moment when the collaborative promise of the internet seemed finally to be realised – with ordinary users creating instead of just consuming, on sites from Flickr to Facebook to Wikipedia – Web 3.0 is the moment they forget they're doing it. When the GPS system in your phone or iPad can relay your location to any site or device you like

When it comes to developers working with Facebook, "share and share alike" is the new policy.

No one rides the Facebook express for free.

"If you use any Facebook APIs to build personalized or social experiences, you must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook," Facebook said in a blog post announcing the change.

Indeed, most users of Facebook (or Google+, or countless other social networking sites) seem unaware of just how much they are sharing.

it is ultimately the responsibility of the user to understand his or her settings and know what, precisely, is being shared.

users must educate themselves about the privacy policies and tools available to them on Facebook or any other given site. Using available tools, users can reasonably protect their content from the public view.