The special one day conference coincides with the staging of the Cable & Wireless Childnet Academy 2005 in Montego Bay and will bring together participants representing the Government, Educators, Policy Developers, Youth Organizations, and non-governmental organizations working with children, mobile service providers, parenting support organizations and software developers.

Local participants will share ideas and experiences with international experts in the fields of website development and safe practices for Internet use as these relate to families, children and schools.  Members of the public who are unable to make it to the conference, will be able to view the morning's proceedings via a live C&W webcast at home.cwjamaica.com/stream. Realplayer is required to view the webcast and persons can download it at www.real.com.

A highlight of one of the conference sessions - 'Listening to Children and Young People' - will be presentations from the various winners in the 2005 Childnet International website development competition.

The winners, selected from a field of 225 entrants by a panel of international judges, include Jamaica's Shawna-Kay Lester and other young people from UK, Nigeria, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada and Uzbekistan - all of whom demonstrate that the Internet can be a powerful and inspiring tool when used safely and creatively.

Other sessions will look at issues relating to Interactive Services; the Do's and Don'ts of Communicating for Young People; Educating Teachers and Parents; and Anticipating Future Risks in Mobile Technology.

Contributions will also be made by Jamaica's Minister of Education Youth and Culture, The Hon.  Maxine Henry-Wilson; Cable & Wireless Jamaica President, Jacqueline Holding; a former Norwegian Ombudsman for Children, Trond Waage; Chief Executive of Childnet International, Stephen Carrick-Davies; as well as representatives of Microsoft; British Broadcasting Corporation; and The British Council.

Childnet International is a Cable & Wireless-sponsored charity dedicated to fostering the safe and positive uses of the Internet by young people around the world.  One of its main vehicles for achieving this objective is an annual international competition which invites entries from youngsters in a variety of categories and age ranges.

This year Jamaica not only topped the number of entries submitted from a single country but also, for the second year running, produced the winner of the 'New to the Net' category in the person of Miss Lester, the 2003 recipient of the Prime Minister's Award in the field of Journalism.