Jamaican Carrie-Ann Gordon, a student of the Immaculate Conception High School, speaks about her winning entry in the Cable and Wireless Childnet Awards, at a function held Thursday at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

SHE may have done it only because she had some free time on her hands. But for Carrie-Ann Gordon, a 17 year-old upper sixth form student of Immaculate Conception High School, the pay-off is good.

This week, she created a first for Jamaica, for being named among the 12 category winners in Cable and Wireless' Childnet Awards 2004 - an international competition designed to stimulate and highlight the positive uses young people around the world are making of the Internet. A total of 250 entries were received from 40 countries for the competition, now in its sixth year. Jamaica entered for the first time this year.

Gordon's website, with the theme 'Youngadults2-youngeradults', located at http://members.lycos.co.uk/thelinkup/ , topped the 'New to the Net' category in the competition and earned her a £2,000 grant from the academy web development fund, plus a trip to London for training at the Childnet Academy next month as well as a cellular phone.

"It proves that if you have your mind to something, the dedication to do it and the love to enjoy it, you can accomplish more than you ever hoped," Gordon said of her achievement at an awards ceremony at the Terra Nova Hotel on Thursday evening.

Her website is a prototype for a website that will provide a place for teens and young adults to help one another and will provide young people with the opportunity to discuss issues and ask questions. She also has plans to develop a moderated discussion board and to write a monthly newsletter for members.

The target group is children between the ages of six to 15.
Said Gordon: "I am aware of the risk of a site like this, children being quite impressionable; but I also believe that if used wisely, the Internet can be a medium for children to express themselves and share ideas with the world. that in itself is a wonderful thing."

Yesterday, nine-year-old Annaleise Aiken of the Liberty Academy was also recognised for her entry 'Ultimate Fun'. Her website was aimed at entertaining children around the world, through games, clubs, inventions, music and art. For her effort, she received free Internet service for a year from Cable and Wireless.

Meanwhile, 13-year-old Raoul Mahtani's 'Teen Life: Problems and Solutions' won him a Nokia Ngage, and an e-learning course which will teach him the basics of web development and content management. The Cable and Wireless Jamaica Foundation will also host his website for a year through the foundation's website.

Ann-Loy Morgan, 15, of Campion College, won a similar prize for her website, 'Imagination Nation' - that was created to provide creative children with an outlet for their art work.

President of Cable and Wireless Jamaica, Gary Barrow, challenged other private sector entities to help to bring this type of technology to the young.

"Government alone can no longer be expected to assume the full responsibility for issues such as these and we believe that the private sector must also contribute its fair share if we are to escape from the concept of Internet apartheid," he said.

"Together we should aim to make sure, that as far as access to the information age is concerned, not one Jamaican child will be left behind," added Barrow.

He was particularly pleased of Gordon's achievements.
Said Barrow: "Since we got the news of the results of this year's Childnet competition, I have been overcome with a renewed sense of national pride to have it re-confirmed, that Jamaicans can compete and match skills, with the best anywhere in the world, in almost anything."

C&WJ's senior vice-president of legal and regulatory affairs, Camille Facey, in the meanwhile, urged young Jamaicans to seize the opportunity in the next round.

"The competition for the 2005 awards kicks off in May and we would like to have even more entries from Jamaica than we had this year," she said.

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