Minister addresses Assembly on Sparklebox

The Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, has made a statement in the Assembly on the Sparklebox teaching resources website.

Speaking in the Assembly, the Minister said: “In January 2010 a Belfast primary school was informed that the owner and operator of ‘Sparklebox’, a teaching resource, had been jailed in Warwick in January 2005 for possession of child pornography. This person has since been arrested again and jailed in January 2010 for similar offences.

“I am advised that C2k became aware of the issues surrounding Sparklebox in December2009 and have since blocked schools’ access to the site through their network. I must emphasise that C2k’s filtering system disabled any possible interactive component on the Sparklebox  website and therefore minimised the risk.

“As you will appreciate I take very seriously my Department’s duty to ensure that the safety of pupils in all aspects of their education is safeguarded. I regard their safety as of paramount importance and I seek to ensure myself on an ongoing basis that the policies and procedures in place are appropriate and effective.

“Accordingly, my Department has written to the Chief Executive of the Western Education Library Board to instruct him to investigate the manner in which this situation was handled and to make recommendations on what lessons can be learned from this in terms of further enhancing policies and procedures for protecting the safety of children. I expect a full report on or before 24 March 2010.”

The C2k network provides an ICT managed service to all grant-aided schools. The provision of the service is managed on behalf of all the Education and Library Boards by the Western Education and Library Board.

The Minister continued: “Child protection issues are of the highest priority for me and my Department and cuts across many government Departments and agencies including the Department of Health and the Police Service. This issue affects England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and I have written to my Ministerial colleagues to update them on the situation. Child protection issues were also discussed at the North South Ministerial Council and British Irish Council and we must continue to work together to safeguard our children and learn from the Sparklebox experience.”

Notes to editors:

1. Sparklebox is a website containing resources for primary school teachers, which can be downloaded for classroom use with pupils and was made available through the C2k network.
2. Media enquiries to the Department of Education Press Office on 028 9127 9701. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.