16th November 1998

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12-year old Coleraine schoolboy, Leon McCarron, flew off to the United States on Saturday 14 November for the experience of a lifetime. Leon is one of the delegates at the week-long international Junior Summit in Boston, which culminates in a live video- conference with the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Leon has been taking part in the world's largest ever link-up of children on the internet and was elected in an online vote by the 3,000 participating children to be one of their 100 delegates to Boston, where they will present their ideas to the UN. Leon's involvement with the Junior Summit has been achieved through the Media Studies department at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, where senior lecturer Dr Dan Fleming has provided the training and technical support necessary for Leon to take part. Dr Fleming is an expert in using the web for educational purposes and spent much of last year in Brazil, teaching and researching about the internet in the impoverished north-east of the country.

Leon, who lives in Articlave, is a first year pupil at Dalriada School in Ballymoney. For the past three months he has been coming to the university regularly to join in online discussions with children from as far afield as Lithuania, China, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Madagascar, Gabon, Costa Rica, India, Morocco, Brazil and Senegal. Representatives from these and dozens of other countries will converge this weekend on the Media Lab in Boston as the climax for the world's largest children's internet project. The Media Lab is a leading research centre for new media technologies. The agenda for the week long meeting includes the proposal to found 'Nation One' - the world's first nation of children, which will apply to the UN for membership.

Leon is going to the Summit with a special interest in animal welfare and environmental issues - one of twenty topics which the 3,000 children have been discussing on the internet in recent weeks, ranging from the future of education to child abuse. When asked about the Summit and the internet conference he said: "The media department at the university has some amazing technology - they've helped me talk to kids from countries I'd never even heard of before and to build our own web sites to share information about the things that matter to us." Dr Fleming added: "This is the largest and most diverse international grouping of children in history. It has been very satisfying for us to be able to support Leon's participation, using our growing expertise in new media, and we're all looking forward to the climax. In addition to the UN General Assembly session, the kids will present their ideas to a further 1,200 assembled leaders from governments and businesses worldwide who will gather in Boston on Saturday 21 November. It promises to be an amazing day."

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk