Website Investigation
| 18:25 UK time, Monday, 19 March 2012
Martin Harris
鶹 Wales’ X-Ray programme has exposed serious flaws in a social network funded by a Welsh charity, which could put users, including children with learning disabilities, at risk from online predators.
The Special Friends website claims to be “one of the safest sites on the internet”. Users with learning disabilities, their families and carers, are invited to sign up and communicate with other members via chatrooms and personal messages.
X-Ray presenter Rachel Treadaway-Williams was able to register as a member using a fictitious name, date of birth and address. Using her alter-ego – a 14 year old boy called David Jones – Rachel was able to search a database of more than 5,000 members, narrowing down the criteria to 10-15 year olds in a particular area. Some children included photographs of themselves, their full names, schools and clubs they attended - information which could leave them open to approaches from strangers online.
Social network expert Hywel Dance was asked to test the site’s security by X-Ray. As “Clark Kent”, a teenage boy, he demonstrated problems in the site’s profanity filter and said there aren’t any checks that users are who they say they are when they sign up to Special Friends. He told X-Ray “Even as a 40 year old man I was able to sign up and do searches for kids. Even if I'm honest I can do searches for kids.”
X-Ray took its findings to Carol Boys, Chief Executive of The Down's Syndrome Association. She said “I think it's absolutely terrifying that there doesn't appear to be a proper safeguarding system in place. If people can just log on and immediately start talking to people with learning disabilities, there has to be some kind of safeguarding system put in place to make sure that cannot happen.”
Since 2009 the social network has received over £50,000 of funding from Welsh charity Follow Your Dreams, based in Talbot Green. The charity raises money at roadshows where they say they make children’s dreams come true. The roadshows are run by the charity’s founder, Martin Harris from Cardiff, who also owns the company behind Special Friends.
The roadshows have also been criticised by other organisations. The DSA’s Carol Boys said “We feel really uncomfortable about the idea of people with learning disabilities performing in public and money being collected which is not necessarily going to them - it's going somewhere else.”
Since 2009 Follow your Dreams has paid over £160,000 to companies controlled by Martin Harris. Dr Paul Dunn wrote the report into AWEMA which led to the Welsh Assembly Government terminating funding to that charity. X-Ray asked him to look into Follow Your Dreams’ accounts and he said, “It does appear that a significant proportion, perhaps a majority, of the money is going through contractual relationships with private organisations which Mr Harris is involved in as well.
What, for me is concerning about this is there are a lot of organisations involved and it's not clear, I think, that most of the money that's being raised is going to the charity for the purposes they set out.”
Originally the charity was called the Greg Silvester Trust, named after a young man with Down’s Syndrome who Martin Harris claims was his inspiration for setting up the charity. Greg and his family told X-Ray they had no idea that the charity had been registered as The Greg Silvester Trust - although Martin Harris insists they knew the facts.
Follow Your Dreams is currently being investigated by the Charity Commission. In a statement they say “The Charity Commission opened a regulatory compliance case into the charity Follow Your Dreams (registered charity no.1106379) on 8 March 2011.
Our investigation relates to the charity's overall governance, fundraising policies and procedures and financial management, such as the repeated late submission of its accounts and annual return.” According to accounts submitted to the Charity Commission, Follow Your Dreams’ income rose from £13,831 in 2006 to £269,675 in 2011.
Martin Harris told X-Ray he earns £15,000 a year running the roadshows which he says thousands of children have benefitted from. He said Follow Your Dreams GB Limited which received over £100,000 from the charity, was a trading arm which funded awareness raising and the roadshows. He says the roadshows are lucky to break even. He's investigating the security issues X-Ray highlighted with the Special Friends website.
Sue Sugarman has worked for Follow Your Dreams since 2009. Last year she took over as Chief Executive of the charity. She told X-Ray “We sponsor Special Friends because it's a wonderful site”. When confronted with the evidence that bogus users could access the network of users, including vulnerable children, Ms Sugarman said she would investigate the problems.
Rachel Treadaway-Williams asked, “Will you question now whether Follow Your Dreams continues to fund this site?” Ms Sugarman replied “Of course I will.” She told the programme she couldn’t discuss how the charity had been run in the past but said it is now being run “as it should be” and most of the charity’s money is spent on making dreams come true.
Following the interview, X-Ray was informed that Special Friends have carried out a thorough investigation. They say it has been up to their users to protect their privacy - but they are looking to change that. Once security is improved, Sue Sugarman hopes Follow Your Dreams will continue funding the site.
