School Maps Removed from Council’s Website over Child Protection Fears
Maps showing where Island school children live have been removed from the Isle of Wight Council’s website.
The maps of the Island were put on the Council’s EduWight website, showing how far pupils at each school here must travel.
To quote Isle of Wight Radio News - “The Isle of Wight Council admits that maps showing the distances pupil travel to and from school could have made it possible for sex predators to locate their exact address.”
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February 28th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Doesn’t this breach the Data Protection Act?
This is a serious indicator of the local authorities incompetence, I am glad it has been taken down.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I think the IWCouncil should be investigated for this error of jugement as its a very serious issue and has put childrens lives at risk
February 29th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I am absolutely disgusted with this council. It is yet another serious error they have made. How totally incompetent!
February 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Once again complete over reaction from many people opposed to the plans. I actualy studied the maps in detail, and all there were was some spots. It would have been very difficult to pinpoint exact homes from that, especially in areas where there were more than a few homes.
As for putting kids lives at risk - is this any more risk than a person with those types of intentions waiting near a school or swimming pool or play ground etc, then following the kids home to find out where they live?
While I appreciate the council did not put themselves in an ideal situation with the maps, lets be a little realistic shall we and not panic. The council took the maps down, and I am pretty certain while they were up there were no adverts or posters inviting people to go and look at them and abuse them for the wrong reasons.
February 29th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I agree that only in a few remote places might it be possible to identify a child. I am unsure exactly why they were removed as anyone with malintent will have downloaded them by now. I assume someone has threatened legal action.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
to number 4, Mrs B.
Mrs B, that’s you again. Sometimes I wonder if you are just someone who enjoys winding people up just for fun. I don’t know how old you are and how well informed you are. But let’s not make any judgements on that and I will try to explain to you as best as I can, very slowly. Please take your time to understand this fully. The fact Mrs B is that some children have actually moved specifically to the Isle of Wight with their mother and siblings or even just father, as a result of very abusive relationships, that might involve death threats and huge custody battles. Having a map such as the one that IOW council just took out of line gives a lots of clues to someone who might be targetting a specific family and already has some information such as which area of IOW they are living at. Some time ago, there was a similar problem with the pictures of reception children being published on the County Press, as one of such children was in a similar special situation. When the photo was published, they had to move out again. Do you wonder, why some schools never have pictures of their reception class published on the IWCP in September? There is also the case of families that might be under police protection for a series of reasons. I imagine that you might be reading a lots of tabloids to really think that some kind of dangerous people would be waiting near a school or swimming pool or play ground. The reality is not really like that and besides the communities here are too close and would notice this kind of suspicious behaviour. Besides, such a map would just make things easier for that kind of person. They would not need to wait at school, they would have a map. That’s not panic Mrs B. That’s the real world. The person who spotted the mistake and reported did a pretty good job.
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
To Patrick (6)
Thank you well said and needed saying some people just dont get it do they, childrens lives at risk be it from maps or loosing their local school both just as important in my book…