First News, the UK’s leading weekly newspaper for children aged 7-14 years have enlisted a group of Lower III students that attend Current Affairs Club to be part of the First News Press Club. They will be contributing their views and collective opinions on current news topics for the rest of the academic year.

In the recent issue, Shriya, Aashvi, Nicika, Esha, Taliah and Rosa shared their ideas of a social media site for children:

‘We, at The Abbey Junior School, feel that it is a good idea to have a fun and engaging social media site for children that has two levels for ages, 10-12 years and 13-17 years. Each level should require parent signature verification of the child’s age and terms and conditions. It would be great to have drop down menus at each age appropriate level to explore games, music, videos, news and book/film reviews.

There should be a daily time limit of 20 minutes and 30 minutes during weekends and holidays to use the site. Parents should be able to verify any posts their child wants to make, and also receive notifications of inappropriate behaviour, friend requests and reporting. If there is inappropriate behaviour detected, the penalty should be a 1 week ban, followed by a further 3 week ban if the behaviour is repeated.

Only child-friendly toy/educational companies should be allowed to advertise on the site, and children should be able to access counselling from the NSPCC and ChildLine.’