Episode 1 On Top of the Digital World

This programme contains some strong language.

Hello! I'm Tom Thurlow.

I'm 18...and I live in Cheltenham.

Can YOU make a name for yourself using the internet?

Some teenagers are sceptical. I never had any doubts it would get me where I wanted to be.

Take Lily Allen. She used MySpace and bagged herself a recording deal.

Arctic Monkeys did a similar thing and now they're huge stars.

When I was 13, I had my first business idea -

to get books signed by their authors and sell them for more money online.

I would buy 50 books by an author,

put them in my suitcase,

travel up and down the country on the train and go to the signings.

I went up to the authors, Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling,

I got my books and asked them to sign them.

I'd go, "I'm a teenager.

"I need the money. Please can you sign these books?" And they did!

I ended up with bookcase after bookcase full with signed books.

I thought I should set up a website, my own company, and sell them.

Look, I have one last signed copy of Spirit Walker by Michelle Paver.

My next scheme was to buy domain names,

you know, the www.something.com.

I'd sit in my room,

come up with as many names as possible, buy the domains,

and sit on them until someone offered me a large amount of money.

What about bluerainforest.co.uk?

What about stealingartwork.com?

What about quiz247.co.uk?

What about halo4.co.uk?

That's absolutely fantastic!

OK, so I bought 300 domain names, including halo4.co.uk,

which I have really high hopes for.

I've had Microsoft knocking on my door. Watch this space!

Then I got a sensible job at the bank as a business manager,

It was a good job, but I wanted to be more creative.

I wanted to be a TV presenter!

I sat in my lunch breaks thinking, "If I want to be a TV presenter,

"how am I going to get my face out there?"

Other people had become famous using the internet.

Perez Hilton has his gossip show.

Chris Crocker was an internet phenomenon.

I thought, "I could do this myself."

Then I realised I had a nice big Hollyoaks fan page on Bebo.

If I made an online show I would get my face out there

and I could end up being a presenter.

What I did was get a friend, get a camera. hit the streets

and found out what people thought of that week's Hollyoaks.

-Are any characters grabbing your attention at the moment?

-Newt.

-He's gone a bit mad.

-Newt? OK. He's gone all schizophrenic!

-Yeah!

-He's a bit weird, isn't he?

-Yeah.

I was terrified. I didn't know how people would react.

But it went fine.

-Is there a character...?

-I think Warren should.

-Guys, do you watch Hollyoaks?

-No.

-Hollyoaks is crap!

'I spent the Sunday editing, putting it all together.'

I was really pleased so I put it on my Hollyoaks fan page on Bebo,

which I'd set up because I was a big fan.

The first day I uploaded the video it got 50,000 hits

and Bebo called me to say they loved it and invited me to London to meet with them.

And, after that,

things just went crazy.

Hey, Tom. Good to see you. What are you doing now?

I'm fronting a weekly show for Big Brother, Big Brother On The Streets.

I go to a different town and find out their views on Big Brother.

This autumn, I'm starting a new show for Bebo called Meet The Freshers.

I'm going to get opinions on freshers, the whole transitional process digging the dirt, basically.

Sounds fantastic!

And I do online PR for Disney and Tesco.

What does that involve?

I get a brief, whether they want to advertise a new ride

or the next trifle,

and use social networking or search engines to promote their brand.

Wow! Brilliant! What about the bank?

I've been able to quit the bank and followed my dream.

This sounds incredibly exciting. How long has it taken you?

About four months, really.

Wow! So, Tom, what do you attribute your success to?

I have achieved it in a short amount of time

and that's down to the internet.

The internet can get your name out there, and get any brand out there.

It's free. Anyone can access it. Its availability is just there.

Because I've used it and put my name out there,

people can find me so much quicker so I do thank the internet.

It's an amazing tool, something anyone can use.

What message have you got to send to other teenagers?

If people want to follow their dreams, use the internet.

Great advice, Tom. Best of luck for the future.

Thanks!

I use the internet just about every day for a variety of things

like talking to my friends, entertainment, doing school work.

I use social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, YouTube.

'Craig is 15. He makes a conscious effort to reveal as little about himself online as possible.'

I've made all my social network profiles private. I don't post my phone number or address.

I'm confident that people can't spy on me.

'But Craig is in for a shock.

'Tom Ilube's company has developed internet tracking software.

'We asked Tom to see what personal information he can discover about Craig online.'

Garlik software, Data Patrol, looks through the digital world,

through billions of web pages for an individual's information.

I think Craig may be surprised at the amount of information about him

that's available to a complete stranger.

'We gave Tom just two pieces of information about Craig.'

I was given just your name and the fact that you lived near Brighton.

-I quickly found your full name. Is that your middle name?

-Yeah.

-Your date of birth is out there. Is this your mum's name?

-Yes.

-Is that her maiden name?

-Yes.

-Do you often to go Scotland to see family members?

-Yeah.

-Were you up there for your grandma's birthday?

-Yeah.

-Is that your home address?

-Yeah.

-This is your school.

-Yes.

You're a student in year ten.

-Have you been in this play?

-Yeah.

-Is this the role you played?

-Yeah.

It was interesting to see your actual IQ published online.

Your e-mail addresses are out there.

Quite a lot about your interests in computer gaming and your user names.

-Apparently, you formed a band.

-A very short-lived pointless band.

-Is this your best friend?

-Yup.

-Is this your quote, "I'd like a girlfriend but a bunch of rabid fan girls would do"?

-That's me!

As a complete stranger given a couple of hours

-I feel as if I know you quite well.

-That's quite amazing, actually.

Some information I'm going to edit or delete to make it more private.

'So, how did Tom discover all this information about Craig?'

I used publicly available information,

nothing that anybody couldn't just log on to.

To start with, I was given your name and that you were from Brighton.

And so I threw that into a search engine to see what might come back.

Is this your MySpace page?

-Yeah.

-I found a reasonable amount of information about you here.

And some of the information about your interests seems quite personal.

-Were you intending for it to be available?

-I'd set it to private.

I thought you had to be a friend to see it. Nothing too personal.

I don't have my phone number or address.

And here we got a site that you set up when you were 12.

-You probably haven't looked at it for years.

-I never even used it.

You put a reasonable amount of information on.

Here you've got all the old blog posts.

It's amazing, when you read all your blog posts...

..how much you know about someone.

'In one of Craig's blogs, he'd given away his date of birth.'

Now, the interesting thing is you can go off to public sources like...

-Family tree finders.

-Exactly. It has your mother's maiden name.

Through nothing you've done, that information is publicly available.

'Seemingly innocent details can link with others to create a wider picture.'

You're careful with telling people what school you're at.

The school itself has published on its website information about you.

Finding your home address

that you've been careful not to reveal was more of a challenge.

One of the things I noticed across 160 posts,

the only mention of where you live is when you said, "I ran up to my house because I forgot my ticket."

That told me you live somewhere near your school.

I knew where the school was so I knew that you must live close.

'Simply by putting Craig's surname

'and the area into a search engine turned up more clues.'

What came up under the Brighton and Hove planning permission

was details of a single storey extension

in the name of your mum

that showed me your exact address.

'Tom went to a house price site that also features satellite image maps.'

You can zoom in on it and see the car parked out the front,

a couple of deck chairs in the back garden, a trampoline there.

You piece together this information

and end up with a complete picture, even though you're a stranger!

'It isn't unusual to find out that sort of information.'

My advice to young people is to be conscious that when you put information online

you are making it available to a billion people worldwide -

people who might employ you, go out with you, members of your family.

When you put information out there it stays out there.

If you don't want it out there in the future, go back and clear it up.

Kind of bring it over one eye.

I think my work has a very surreal element.

Creative, it's got that fashion element.

'Lara Jade is 19, a student doing a degree in visual communication,

'but already making a name with her photography.'

The inspiration for this is mainly that gothic element,

but also something theatrical.

Stamp your foot and then flick your hair but look towards me as well.

One, two, three...

The way I promote my work is through the internet, MySpace, DeviantART.

I always state that I'm available to do photo shoots, commissions.

My work's been used very well in different ways.

Book covers are the main one, also CD covers, online magazines

and also features in magazines in this country.

If someone wants to use one of my images legally,

they e-mail me or get in touch with me on one of the websites,

give me details of what they want it for and we go from there.

'There's a downside to putting original images on websites.

'People can use them illegally, as Lara found with this self-portrait

'taken when she was only 14.'

The top hat photo was taken on holiday with my family. I went out and bought a dress and hat.

Went back to the hotel, saw the light through the window

and thought that would make a perfect shot.

I uploaded it to DeviantART, got good feedback straightaway,

a lot of people favourited it.

The first photograph that I thought, "I've got something here."

Back in February last year, someone noted me on DeviantART

that the top hat photograph was used on a pornographic DVD.

It was being sold worldwide on websites such as Hustler.

I was horrified more because of the fact it was a pornographic DVD.

It was quite disgusting. I didn't get any warning.

It was put on the DVD without asking.

I felt quite upset for a while. I didn't want to take photos.

I felt anyone can do this.

If one person can get away with it, quite a few people can.

'Lara discovered the hard way about copyright infringement.'

Being a young age, it's quite hard to understand what copyright is.

Copyright is a very old and traditional form of protecting

the expression of ideas once expressed in a permanent form.

'Mike Brookes is a lawyer specialising in copyright.'

Copyright attaches to traditionally artistic works -

paintings, photographs, books, films, TV shows.

Once you own copyright in a photograph,

you alone are the person who is allowed to copy it

or to broadcast it to the public.

You can prevent people doing things with it without your consent.

'The internet has made copyright protection much more difficult.'

The internet is worldwide, available for everyone and very easy to use.

Two clicks of a mouse and you've copied a photograph.

'What did Lara do about the copyright infringement of her photo?'

I first got my mum's advice on the situation.

She tried to contact a solicitor over here but was made aware

it would cost her 50,000 or more to fight the case.

I e-mailed the owner of the company,

got a nasty reply so realised I couldn't do anything that way.

I then took it the route of using the popularity I've gained online.

So I put up online everything that had been said.

Someone got in touch, a lawyer from America.

He said he'd be willing to help me and because I can't afford the fees

the fees would be taken out afterwards.

'The court case is pending.

'Meanwhile, can Lara prevent her images being used illegally?'

The most you can do, from my point of view, is upload them very small.

You can upload them 400 pixels wide and still have that view quality.

You can do watermarking,

leaving a copyright notice

saying that legal action will be taken if it's stolen.

It's still hard, even though you do these measures.

'It is hard. Lara's images are still regularly being used illegally.'

I get messages about my work being stolen quite often, probably once, twice a week.

This was probably one of the worst ones I've had recently.

Mexican Fashion Week stole a self-portrait I took two years back.

A person who took part in Mexican Fashion Week knew the designer,

told me about the use of my image and took these photographs.

This was a flyer and this was a whole billboard full of my work.

This was a nightclub in Australia advertising DJ nights.

They used another self-portrait.

This is a T-shirt in India sent to me. An on-looker took a photo.

'Can Lara take action over these copyright infringements?'

Often, if it's someone that doesn't realise about copyright, usually it's a young person,

you send a nice e-mail telling them to remove it.

If it's a company I alert my lawyer and he deals with it directly.

'Ultimately, there's no way

'copyright on material uploaded to the internet can be 100% protected.'

The advice has to be that, if you don't want your work copied on the internet, don't put it on there.

'For Lara, it's a risk well worth taking.'

I'm finalising the image, the final touches.

We'll load them on the internet.

I always thought using the internet is a good thing and I still do,

even though there's been negative parts.

I don't think I'd be where I am today with work being featured.

There's no way of getting it out like you can with the internet.

ALARM BLARES

As soon as I wake up, I grab my laptop,

check my e-mails, MSN, Facebook.

I had some e-mails I need to follow up, work related things

from journalists and from my speaking agency.

I had messages on MSN that I replied to.

And I keep getting text messages.

That's James.

We went sailing yesterday and it was really sunny.

He just texted me to say he hopes my face isn't too red.

I'm going to have a shower now.

I just turned 18 and I guess I call myself a teen entrepreneur.

I speak to companies about what it's like being a teenager.

I had a really busy month last month.

I went to Valencia and Aberdeen and Liverpool in five days,

speaking to loads of companies about technology - how we use it, why we use it, what we use.

My toast is ready.

What kicked it off was when I was 13 I heard about bluejacking,

sending anonymous messages to other Bluetooth mobiles within a ten-metre radius.

I looked for information. Couldn't find anything.

I decided to create a website, and the press picked up on it overnight.

So that kind of led me on to be JellyEllie.

The Guardian gave me this cool quote as the voice of the MSN generation.

The BBC heard about that and got me on to talk about one issue.

Once they get you they don't let go,

so I've become their teenage expert voice, which is really good fun.

There's a clip on YouTube, actually.

-JellyEllie, are you part of the me generation?

-There is a bit of that.

I think that we're more driven, more determined to have success...

I'm going to London today to work on my business, jellyTeens,

a youth insight agency.

I've got a network of 13 to 24-year-olds around the country

who help me give an insight to big companies about what it's like being a young person today.

I left school when I was 14. I was home-educated because I was so frustrated being at school.

I've only got one GCSE, which I'm proud of - business studies.

I just had a really good bluejack, someone else waiting for the train.

I sent him a message saying, "Boo!"

I could see him look around.

I sent him another message. He was laughing, a bit freaked out.

It was really successful, really good fun.

You can freak people out so at bluejackQ we have our own code of ethics that we all follow.

If you see that you're causing someone distress, you stop.

This is where I work.

Livity are partners on jellyTeens.

I just presented my first project a couple of days ago and the client loved it, so that was a success.

I provided a media agency with insight into 16 to 24-year-olds pay-as-you-go mobile phone users.

I did video interviews, questionnaires, MSN interviews.

I'm going to sign up young people on LIVE who want to be jellyTeens.

You can join up, fill in a profile.

If I get a client interested in people of your demographic, I'll get in touch.

I was telling you a bit about jellyTeens.

It might be a questionnaire, a video interview.

We probably have about 40 jellyTeens with completed profiles.

When a project comes in, we'll search for a particular demographic,

ask them to ask their friends, so it's a huge network.

I'm off to a meeting with Michelle, a director of Livity, who are partners with me.

-What else are you doing?

-Working on getting the website up.

-I've got a contact doing that virtually for free.

-This is a primary way we'll sell the service.

Yes. Definitely...

Onwards and upwards for jellyTeens.

I'm just having a webcam chat with my friend Sani in Germany.

We met online three years ago.

I couldn't put a figure on the people I know online.

It's into the hundreds from all around the world.

I'm showing Sani my new phone,

making him jealous of my new toy!

He'll probably show me his phone and complain how ancient it is.

He's telling me to stop it.

I would struggle to run my business without my laptop, wi-fi and phone.

It's all about online networks, getting the word out to those people

and getting contacts, clients through the internet.

Contacts I make at conferences, I e-mail them, look at their websites.

My top tip for a young person trying to be successful

using the internet or whatever means

is to follow up every opportunity and every contact they make.

There are so many technologies that can help us communicate,

it's so easy using the internet, you don't have to get out of bed to have a business conversation.

I occasionally will purposely leave my phone at home.

It is nice to get away from it and feel free.

Otherwise, I do like to be with my phone or laptop to keep in touch for my business.

Good night.

This was me when I was probably nearer five stone.

I would think that my chin wasn't prominent enough

and my cheeks were a bit chubby.

The only thing that my dad said got bigger was my eyes.

Everything else was shrinking.

I was thinking, "I need to lose weight."

I look back now and it is scary.

'Natalia is 25. She's an artist.

'When she was studying art at university,

'she began to suffer from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.'

I was 19. Self-esteem wasn't great.

Gorgeous girls were around me, looking fashionable.

My weight was probably about ten and a half stone.

Then I started a diet and people said, "Have you lost a few pounds?"

I went, "Yeah." That was a great feeling.

The more I did, the more I felt great,

the more I didn't want to do my art any more.

So, in my third year I had to quit.

At this point, my weight had gone so low it was worrying my family.

It was my way of life and nothing else mattered.

'Natalia was already using the internet to help with dieting.'

It led me to the internet, if I had eaten something what was the calorie content?

I used the internet to look for the lowest calorie recipes.

'Natalia found websites and forums relating to anorexia.

'Some of these were pro-ana sites encouraging girls to lose weight.'

On the internet search, I'm finding forums with girls who exactly feel the same as me.

This was such an eye-opener. I felt such a relief. I was so lonely.

My family didn't understand.

These people I'd never met were experiencing the way I was feeling.

It was giving tips. It was a big competition.

Aiming to be the best at losing weight.

It made me think I don't need to get better, I don't need to get help.

Can't I just keep getting thinner?

One of these sites, a girl's writing that they want to become anorexic,

how to become anorexic.

She's asking for advice to keep this illness a secret as long as possible

and how they can lose weight.

It really does shock me.

I can see what I used to read and think there's nothing wrong with it, but it really is bad.

I can see the effect people can have on others.

'The internet is a vast ocean of information and opinion

'with plenty up there that can cause offence or even harm.

'Should people be free to say whatever they like

'or should there be some regulation of inappropriate material?

'Jim Valentine is moderator of TheSite.org,

'where young people can discuss a wide range of issues.'

The maxim of the internet

was Voltaire's, "You have the right to say anything.

"I'll defend your right to say it to the death."

Not that every place on the internet people can do anything they want.

Certain things are acceptable in certain environments

and certain things aren't acceptable in other environments.

What you'd say in a pub would be different to a job interview.

I don't think there's any doubt that a website aimed at vulnerable people

run by people without any kind of framework or way of protecting people using it

can be damaging.

The difficulty isn't removing the websites

as much as making sure that people have the ability

to search out websites that are genuinely helpful.

'Is there any censorship in operation on TheSite.org?'

We don't do anything to restrict what people can talk about,

but we do have rules around abusive behaviour

or posting racist or sexist material.

In a case of someone posting "How can I stop eating?"

We'd hope to see a dual response, one from the moderators,

pushing people towards fact sheets to give them more empowerment.

We'd also hope to see the other users of the website

would point out the troubling implications of the post.

If someone asked "How can I stop eating?" you've got the opportunity to address the issues.

With the explosion of social networking sites

and the model they present, user-generated content,

which is a wonderful thing.

For every negative support group,

I'm sure you'll find lots doing incredibly good work.

'Natalia's convinced that the pro-ana websites held her back from seeking help for her anorexia.'

I lost a couple of years of my life.

These websites put a halt to me getting professional help.

These girls from all over the world were posting messages.

They'd been to a unit, how horrible it was,

staff were horrible.

They were giving a horrible picture and I was believing this.

When I had the option to go into a unit, I was like, "I don't want to."

'Natalia was finally admitted to the eating disorder unit

'at Cheadle Royal Hospital.'

I stayed for six months, which has done me the world of good.

I did programmes to understand why I needed to get better, self-motivation, self-esteem.

Right now, I am much happier.

It's been a year and a few months since I left the unit.

I feel like a different person. I am normal.

That's a word that I used to be afraid of.

Now, it's good to say I am normal.

I am happy and I just want to carry on with my art

and my life that I missed out on for so many years.

'Natalia's taking part in a campaign organised by the hospital

'against the pro-ana sites.'

There'll always be an underground of sites that people will find.

We want people to know that professional help is out there

and other people to talk to.

It is illness. It's not, you know, a way of life.

It can kill you, really.

I'd always sit in school and think to myself,

"All I had to do is just cut in the right place

"or take the right amount of pills and it'll be over.

"I won't have to go through it any more."

It's easier to say than to do.

'Bullying has always been a huge problem for many young people.

'The internet allows violence and verbal abuse to follow victims home.

'Sianie is 15 years old.

'Two years ago, she was a victim of cyberbullying.'

It all started in year seven or year eight. Only 13.

A few girls out of my year decided they didn't like me.

When I started to change from being the same as everyone else

to dressing differently, listening to different music,

they had a problem with it.

I'd been told that a few girls in our year

had started up a hate page about me.

I was at my mate's one night and I decided to check out this website.

The website she'd used was Piczo.

I opened up the page and it had a picture of me on it.

It had a phrase under it saying, "This is the slag.

"If you don't like her tell us how much you hate her"

under this picture.

Then it had a box next to it with all these things they'd said,

"Go kill yourself. No-one would care if you died.

"Why don't you sort your life out?"

I'm just sitting there thinking, "What?"

'Things escalated when strangers who recognised Sianie from the site

'began shouting abuse at her in the street.'

At first, she said to me that some kids at school

were really bullying her, pushing her around, calling her names.

Sianie showed me the site that had been dedicated to...

slagging Sianie off, basically.

Knowing that all these people had seen it, there were 2,000 hits,

it was just like someone breaking in and having a go at her.

The one place she should feel safe is at home.

And...I was just devastated.

'Sianie also confided in close friend Becks.'

When Sianie showed me the website

at my house, I was really surprised.

Some of the words were really harsh and none of it was true.

She felt really depressed and upset about everything.

I think it's easier to say it online.

If they write on the page, "You're a bitch"

and then say to me, "You're a bitch" and I start crying,

they'll feel worse for saying it to my face than online.

'Sianie's not alone.

'In a study of 1,000 young people, four out of ten claim to have been targeted by online bullies.

'A fifth of children said they had posted offensive comments about others.

'Chris Seth is the European managing director of Piczo.

'What line does Piczo take on cyberbullying?'

When Piczo's alerted to a case we investigate by looking at the site.

We are able to block the individual responsible for bullying

and stop them using the service.

We do try to make it very easy for our members to get in touch.

There's a "report abuse" button on every page,

a "safety at Piczo" area of the site

where we emphasise the best practice.

The best thing for Sianie would have been to have contacted Piczo.

We commit to responding to a "report abuse" e-mail within 24 hours.

'Sianie wasn't aware she could report the bullying to Piczo so how did they handle the cyberbullying?'

My first thought was the school.

I wanted the school to be aware and to clamp down on things like this.

When I told the staff they said it wasn't their problem.

It was an outside school situation.

'We contacted Sianie's school and received this reply.'

'Some schools, like Sacred Heart High School, west London,

'are more proactive in dealing with cyberbullying.'

We take bullying, at school or at home, extremely seriously.

We would investigate and we have the software

to provide us with the hard evidence when we investigate.

'Amede Wilson is the director of ICT.'

We have a view of every PC in the school.

I could bring up a student's screen and see what that student's doing.

They're not aware of this.

This is real-time monitoring.

Then we have the other software, which does the screen captures.

'It contains potentially inappropriate words

'and alerts Amede to when they're being used.'

Here you see "bully".

From experience, we know that would be an assignment for English.

But we'd investigate it, just to make sure.

We have the user, which machine they were on, the time

and the IP address.

We have all the evidence. No further action is needed so we ignore it.

We have this software. It's no good if we don't have the knowledge.

The scope for cyberbullying is wide.

As we're speaking now, a new social networking site is being developed.

We need to always have that knowledge of what's new.

'So, what happened to Sianie?'

I did a lot of self-harming at the time,

which I live to regret.

After a few months,

I kept reading the same comments that I should kill myself,

that no-one would care, I wouldn't be missed or anything.

After a while, as I lost a lot of friends,

I thought if I do kill myself there won't be a problem, this will stop.

But I'm so glad I didn't!

I'm so glad I didn't.

At the school, there were warnings given out to the main ringleaders.

I think that really changed things.

Now the cyberbullying's stopped I'm more at ease with the computer.

The social networks are much more aware of it.

They're very, "If something's said, press this."

And it closes the site down.

The thing I could tell anyone being cyberbullied is to tell someone.

As hard as it is at first, as scary it is,

it's better in the long run.

If I hadn't told anyone I know I wouldn't be here now.

Anyone that says I'm a puppet for Tony Blair...

'It used to be quite an effort to get your thoughts heard

'about important issues of the day.

'The internet age has changed that,

'offering swift communication routes for getting your message out there.

'In spring 2003, hundreds of young people came to Parliament Square

'to protest against the war in Iraq.

'The campaign was organised by Kiera Box and two friends.

'They started in a traditional way.'

This is the banner we made.

We got hold of a couple of hundred quid of paint,

this incredibly long bit of material and about 20 mates.

We commandeered our school hall, hid behind the curtains and painted it over a week.

We called the campaign Hands Up For Peace.

We got people to send their hand print to represent each young person

who wanted to subscribe to the phrase Hands Up For Peace.

'The problem was how to mobilise people to be part of the message.'

We couldn't get people across the world to show support with something

we found it hard to move down the road.

Our 30-metre banner couldn't move geographically!

'The solution was a website.'

It was a very low-maintenance, easy thing to send our message out on.

We didn't go for trying to over-shoot,

trying to make something which was really exciting in loads of ways.

We just got our argument out there, which led us to use online networks.

Not in the same way as Facebook or MySpace now,

sending e-mail forwards through networks like Woodcraft or UK Youth Parliament.

We got a lot of people coming from the site who had seen the e-mail.

They would send it on and they would become part of Hands Up For Peace.

We had links to websites with guides to campaigning and protesting.

It got to the point where the website had a forum on it.

'There was even a downloadable hand print.'

When we started promoting it,

we ended up getting 2,000 hands by the time war broke out,

which was in the middle of March.

These are some of the hands that we got.

We had boxes from Saudi Arabia.

We had e-mails with internet hands

which were made in Japan and Portugal and Australia,

a lot of groups from all over Europe who we got messages of support from.

Here we have "No more violence any more.

"I wish there wasn't any violence in Iraq or on my street."

It's from a ten-year-old.

'The hands were planted in Parliament Square

'and became a focal part when the protest moved to the street.'

While virtual campaigning is great, you have to take it into the world,

otherwise you're not achieving anything, you're floating ideas.

It was called, by the Guardian, one of the foremost youth anti-war movements.

We were covered in the Evening Standard, on the internet, the BBC.

..even if we can't make a difference to what Tony Blair does.

I think that the internet gave Hands Up For Peace international appeal,

and it gave us a national profile as well.

'The internet now offers even more possibilities for campaigners.

'July 2008, following the fatal stabbing of Ben Kinsella,

'hundreds of teenagers take to the streets.

'The march is organised through Facebook, by one of Ben's friends.

'Two months later, another protest against knife and gun crime, again organised via Facebook.'

There are lots of tools for starting a campaign.

You can use social networking sites, YouTube,

you could make your own video and get lots of people to watch that.

You can set up petitions on line, a blog around certain issues.

You can go to other peoples' blogs and respond to what they're doing.

You can e-mail your MP, get together an e-mail campaign.

There's the e-petitions website or the Number10 website,

where you start your own petition.

Invite your friends to sign it and try and get something moving around something you're concerned about.

If you want your campaign to be noticed amongst the other campaigns

target your campaign carefully, be clear about what you want to achieve

and make sure you're not just using the internet,

get your local newspapers, local TV stations involved.

Use all the avenues that are available.

-'And Kiera's advice?'

-Start small.

Start as active as you can with as many ideas as you can

then follow through on them because that's how you'll get people

who are following what you do and being inspired.

It's because they see you, via the internet, doing amazing things.

On a school trip to the Tate Modern I was walking around for an hour.

This man had been following me then he approached me and said,

"Hi. You're Ellie. I'm Ian, Olivia's friend."

I had no idea who he was and how he knew my name.

He starting touching my back and looking into my eyes.

I had no idea who this man was.

'Ellie is 16.

'Two years ago she was tracked down by a man 40 years older than her

'who'd found her by infiltrating social networking sites.'

When I was 13 I first got MySpace

and I started using it to talk to my friends and family,

people like that, contacting them.

'The man who approached Ellie first contacted Olivia, one of Ellie's close Friends.'

I first spoke to this man when he added me on MySpace.

On his profile, his friends were people I knew.

I assumed that he was a mutual friend.

He'd leave me general compliments on what I looked like,

but open ones, nothing sexual or anything.

Here he said...

I was a bit scared, so I'd say,

"Please can you not do that" or "How did you know about that?"

He'd always have an explanation.

I realised he was looking at my friends' pages to get information

when he asked if I had a good day in town.

I was like, "How did you know I was in town?"

He was like, "I saw your friend's page that you were going to town."

I had to be careful because it was what my friends were writing, too.

'The man called himself Popcorn Puppy.

'Although he communicated with Olivia's friends, he never contacted Ellie.'

I'd never talked to Popcorn Puppy.

He just saw who I was through Olivia's pictures

and went on to my account through Olivia's account.

I had no idea who he was apart from what Olivia told me.

She said that there was this strange man talking to her

and he was a bit odd.

'Then came the trip to Tate Modern,

'when Ellie became aware that she was being followed by an older man who finally addressed her by name.'

He talked about MySpace,

how he had seen pictures of me and he knows me through that.

I was thinking maybe he was a family friend or an uncle,

that Olivia might have shown her MySpace to.

'He kept following Ellie, who suddenly put two and two together.'

I realised he was Popcorn Puppy, who Olivia said was talking to her.

I went up with my friend to him and said,

"Are you Popcorn Puppy?"

He said "Yeah" and laughed.

I was in my English class while the other girls were there

and received a text saying, "Popcorn Puppy's in Tate Modern."

I was shocked. How would he know about it?

He came in closer to me and started trying to touch my back,

look into my eyes and be a bit more intimate.

At that point, I was a bit, "What's this man doing to me?"

'Ellie had her wits about her.'

I said, "Can I take a picture of you?"

He was like "Yeah" and posed for it.

'Olivia was thinking quickly, too.'

I saved all the messages he'd sent me then gave them to the police.

'Ellie told her mum, Jane.'

I looked at her account to see what information she'd put on it.

She had put a relatively small amount of information.

Even having the name of her school

meant it was possible for someone to wait at the gates for her.

They knew what she looked like because of the photographs.

After I got home it hit me how weird and scary it was,

how he could come and meet me at any time.

He could do it again.

'Ironically, The police were able to track him down by the personal details HE'd put on HIS profile!'

The flat was full of pornography.

A lot of it was child pornography, 20,000 images.

He had level five pornography, apparently the most disturbing.

He was sentenced to 18 months for pornography

and six for the assault on Ellie.

'But how many cases like Ellie's are there every year?

'CEOP is the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.'

We receive, on average, around 500 reports a month of this nature.

Four a day are so serious we act upon them straight away.

The reports we receive range from

young people being uncomfortable having talked to someone online

to young people who've been groomed,

who've met someone who they had contact with online

and ultimately been abused.

'CEOP has a prominent "report abuse" button on its website.'

If someone clicks on the icon they come through to a specialist police officer.

If it's a child the police officer or social worker will contact them.

It will be processed either through a local law enforcement agency,

an international law enforcement agency

or our intelligence and operations faculties.

Social networking sites are fantastic places for young people.

However, social networking sites have a real responsibility

to make those areas safe.

Safety information is often hidden.

It can be difficult to report. They're not doing enough.

'Ellie and Oliva have been taking part in television programmes

'to spread the word about online safety.'

I thought it was a bit weird that this man started talking to me.

'In light of their experience,

'what do Ellie and Olivia do differently online?'

I still use social networking but I'm just a lot more careful.

All my profiles are set to private

on all my accounts on Bebo, MySpace and Facebook.

I don't accept people I don't know.

If anyone tries to talk to me, I don't talk back.

I don't put up anything on my web page that would give any clues

as to what I'm doing, where I live or where I go to school.

I like the kind of games where you can really see the gore.

I like Mario Kart and Cooking Mama.

I'm mainly a retro gamer.

Horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

My favourite modern game is Jet Set Radio.

'These young people are dedicated game players,

'happy to put the hours in.'

I can play the whole day.

Two hours and a half. Not that long.

An hour to two or three hours.

A good five hours just slaving away at a game.

'Concern about the effects of video games on young people

'is behind the gaming industry's age rating system.

'It's one of the first things considered when a game's developed.

'At Electronic Arts in Guildford hundreds of developers

'work on games like Harry Potter and Burnout.'

When we're making games, we always have in mind an audience,

a certain age group,

male or female, and we have to think about what the age rating will be.

For example, we make Harry Potter, the target age group is 12+.

If we built content that wasn't appropriate we'd get a 16+

and wouldn't reach consumers with that product.

'The developers are guided by the Pan-European Gaming Information

'or PEGI rating system.'

The ratings are based on a number of factors - sexual content, violent content, drugs, gambling.

The PEGI age ratings available to us start at 3+.

The next age rating is 7+ and in that you may have friendly combat,

a little bit of shoving,

but never rewarded, never, "Well done, you knocked down your friend."

For 12+, you could have a little human battling,

no lasting harm to an individual.

A 16+ game, there may be sustained injury.

The player may have to heal themselves but it wouldn't be a particularly intense experience.

The upper age rating, 18+,

would find more violent content, traditional with film content.

There might be blood, some lasting damage and the like.

'Developing the Harry Potter game, age ratings have been key.'

We wanted a 12+ certificate. We have a lot of spell-casting.

In this one, we're casting magic against kids and had to make sure they weren't permanently injured.

They have to get up after a fight and give a little bow.

'Whereas Harry Potter pits human against human, another EA game,

'Burnout, sees cars challenge each other.'

Cars smash into each other and will destruct dramatically.

There are no humans, just cars bashing together.

The game has a destructive feel, but it's never harmful.

We have an upgrade patch available on line, which introduces motorbikes with motorbike riders.

At the point of impact, those riders are removed invisibly and the bikes are allowed to destroy.

As long as humans aren't hurt,

we're not encouraging players to hurt humans,

we can keep a lower age rating.

'In Britain, if a game reaches a PEGI 18+ rating,

'or contains video elements like film clips or trailers,

'it is referred to the British Board of Film Classification the BBFC.'

Since 1912, we've been classifying films for cinema,

giving them age ratings to say who they are most appropriate for.

Since 1984, we've been doing that for videos and video games.

This is Civilization Revolution, the kind of violence here

is very mild, there's no detail of injuries, blood or anything.

We would lean towards Parental Guidance.

'Much time and attention is devoted to getting the age ratings right.

'But what is the research evidence

'for a link between violent games and violent behaviour?'

It is extremely difficult to prove with the research done up to now.

It may be that it'll never be shown,

but there is a balance of research on both sides to weigh up.

If you show that people who play violent video games as children are violent as adults

nothing says they weren't violent and that's why they were attracted to violent games.

'It's not surprising that parents are uncertain about the relevance of age ratings.'

The classification of the games, I admit, I don't pay attention to.

There's a great range what children can cope with, how mature they are,

how well they define the difference between fantasy and reality.

I raise my children that just cos you see doesn't mean you do it.

The main thing is to know what you let your children see.

Many parents don't play games and don't have any interest in them.

It's unfortunate that they're not aware of what's in the stuff their children are seeing.

'Despite all the measures to protect young people from exposure to inappropriate material,

'the young people have their own ideas.'

I don't take much notice of that type of stuff.

And I'm sure any other kid would say the exact same thing.

Kids of eight playing a game that's really violent shouldn't be allowed.

That'll kind of affect them, really.

I don't think it should affect people above ten.

By that stage, you don't go off killing people unless you are crazy.

If it's too much swearing, I won't play. I won't do that type of thing.

It's all really rubbish because video games don't mean anything.

The kids buy them anyway. It's just society's way of annoying kids.

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