So it turns out the frighteningly brilliant and popular young adult book series Horrible Histories has steadily taken over the world without me noticing.

From the (not entirely unexpected) audio CD versions of books, to the (entirely unexpectedly) hilarious CBBC sketch show series, to the (apparently amazing) exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, not to mention the recently released game for PC/Wii/DS, Horrible Histories is now everywhere.

Personally I think this is great – Horrible Histories books are certainly the single thing I credit most with my own interest in history. (The Ancient Egyptians used to scoop out dead people’s brains through their noses  with long hooks before they mummified them, don’t ya know.)

And, very excitingly, next on the agenda looks to be a virtual world:

Scholastic Children’s Books is developing a virtual world around its “Horrible Histories” line of kids books in partnership with virtual world designer Yomego. Users will be able to explore  areas like Rotten Rome, Awesome Egypt, and Terrible Tudor London. The companies are apparently planning a virtual goods store, moderated chat, and live events where users can meet the author. The world is set to go live in Summer 2011.

If they can maintain the perfect mix of humour, grossness and Actual Facts that we all love about HH, this will be incredible.  Fingers crossed.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8630736.stm

Today’s 16-year-olds could be in their 20s before they get the chance to have their say about what they think at the ballot box in a general election.

So what policies would influence London’s under-18s if they could vote?

Worth a read, although inevitably (suspiciously?) focussed on knives/guns/pregnancy… issues that are still not representative of the majority of UK teens and disproportionately representated in the mee-jah.

From: http://www.hemeltoday.co.uk/berkhamsted-news/Teens-stranded-in-Iceland-return.6240544.jp

The Icelandic volcano, Eyafjallajoekull, erupted on March 29 and the teenagers, who were on a geography field trip, had front row seats to all the action as they were based just 30km from the site.

Best bit of the article:

Matt added that he and his friends are now hoping volcano questions crop up in their A-level geography exams.

Fantashtic.

Herald Scotland reports that there are now more teens joining the Scouts than at any other time in the last 50 years.

Bear Grylls became Chief Scout last year, and a lot of this success is being attributed to him.

Scouting Commissioner for Greenock and District, David McCallum, said: “The important thing to remember about the Scouts is that the young people are always working towards something and gaining various awards. Its popularity also shows us that there is much more out there for young people, not just drugs, alcohol and violence.”

Quite right.  Even though it’s not quite the binary choice of ‘Scout’ vs ‘Stabby-drunk-criminal’, a lot of teens are just a bit bored.  And the Scouts definitely offer an antidote to that, with LOADS of flippin’ badges. So very many badges.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/first_time_voter/8627045.stm

“The fact is that more votes were cast in the X Factor final than the most popular party received in the 2005 General Election.”

Dermot will be interviewing all three main party leaders over the next few days, and you can submit your quesitons now.  He’s also presenting a first time voter’s question time on BBC Three closer to the election.

In related news, the Beeb’s first time voter site is very good.

This is hot.

Yesterday, Jim Gamble,  director of CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) met with Facebook to discuss concerns over child safety on the site. Facebook does seem to be budging from their initially resistant position, however they are still opposed to installing a “panic” button itself.

Responding to mounting pressure from the Government and parents to protect its 23 million British users, it has now redesigned its abuse reporting system so users can alert the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) to any unwanted or inappropriate contact.

Managers have also agreed to establish a new 24-hour police hotline, dedicated to helping with emergencies, investigations and prosecutions.

Read more @ The Independant. A similar Guardian article points out other sites such as MySpace include a “Report abuse” button.

So over the next couple of months AOL is doing its level best to get rid of the social networking albatross that is Bebo.

Beyond the obvious “but they only bought it in 2008″, and “it used to be really popular, aren’t teens fickle?”, there’s one pretty distressing impact of this.  And it’s not unique to Bebo.

For those young people who’ve grown up using the site over the last five years, what happens to all their messages, photos and conversations when Bebo shuts?  These are their memories, built up with their friends, over half a decade.  Will the site stay online for people to log in, browse, but no longer update? Unlikely. Or just vanish from the net forever? Likely.

A lot of people have already started backing up, because they know that AOL won’t care how much time they’ve invested in their site.   Sure social networks are a business trying to be as profitable as possible, but most people (esp teens) who use them don’t see them like this.  It’s just where their mates and photos are. 

And then, one day, they’re not.