Since we at the BBC started blogging in earnest in 2005, we have seen some incredible growth. Now tens of millions of our blog pages are being read every month, and our hope in BBC News is that they add context and expert analysis to the big stories.

When we started blogging it felt important that our blogs should follow the style of other blogs at the time, and because we used a popular blogging program, that was easy to achieve. Since then styles have matured a bit, and this week the design for our pages is also changing.

The main thing you'll notice is that the columns are wider than before, meaning the width of the page now matches that of the main BBC News website.

The page headers are now also the same, meaning it's easier to find other content from across the BBC. We hope that one effect of these changes is to make it obvious that our blogs are now a core part of what the BBC website offers. Do let us know what you think about the new designs.

Incidentally, while talking about blogs, the deputy director of BBC News, Stephen Mitchell, discussed the proper role of blogging in the BBC with media commentator Stephen Glover on this week's Newswatch, which you can watch here.

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There's been quite a bit of discussion in the blogosphere over the past 24 hours about the Click botnet experiment. It was aired in news coverage and detailed on this site yesterday - you can see it here, and you can see the full programme on BBC World News and the BBC News channel over the next few days.

Put simply, we posed as a customer, and bought a piece of software which gave us control of thousands of infected computers around the world.

We commanded them to send spam messages to our test addresses, and to stall a website by repeatedly requesting access. Not a working website, of course - in the real world, this technique is used to extort money from businesses that rely on the web for their very survival.

We alerted the PCs that they were liable to infection, gave them a place to go to for further advice, and destroyed the malware for good. It's all in the programme.

A lot of the debate has been about whether we did the right thing digging into the murky world of hackers and organised cybercrime. In seeking to demonstrate the threat, had we put ourselves in the position of those we wanted to expose?

That's always a good question. After all, we could have simply described what we believe happens and given some warning advice, couldn't we? We've done this in the past. So have many others...

But hacking has gone professional. Today, your PC can be doing bad things to other people without you even knowing. It's a major growth area for organised crime: it's global, and very local to all of us who work, communicate and play on the world wide web.

So we felt that there was the strongest public interest in not just describing what malware can do, but actually showing it in action. A real demonstration of the power of today's botnets - to infect, disrupt and damage our digital lives - is the most powerful way to alert our audiences to the dangers that they face. It's a wake-up call to switch on that firewall and improve our security on the internet.

We think that what we did was a first for broadcast journalism. We were amazed by the ease of use of the botnet, and the power of its disruptive capacity.

No-one watching our programme could learn how to build a botnet or where to go to to buy one. But what is very clear is the level of threat - especially to home users who don't have the benefit of corporate-level security. (Our guide to PC protection is here.) As the hackers continue their silent running, we thought it was our job to expose the mechanics of their hidden economy. Please watch the full show and see what you think.

Mark Perrow is executive producer, Click.

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The death of a loved one can be a life-changing experience and one that can be difficult to deal with at any age. For children - it is arguably even more harrowing.

When we first considered making a Newsround special on how children cope with bereavement, we immediately sought the advice of a clinical psychologist.

He backed up our suggestion that it can be even harder for young people to deal with because many children aren't as emotionally equipped to handle loss as adults.

Young people don't always know about support services and they can often give the impression of having "got over it" when in reality they are simply bottling up their emotions.

Using this guidance as a starting point and after consulting with a number of charities - we ran a short item on our programme asking children who have suffered bereavement and who would be willing to share their stories to get in touch.

We weren't sure if anyone would respond so were somewhat taken aback when lots of children contacted us.

The research stage of the project was tricky - we needed children and their guardians to understand what getting involved in the programme would mean.

We'd be asking about very personal issues and reminding children of difficult times with cameras and lights pointed at them. Not an easy ask.

Some children we spoke to were clearly still traumatised by their experiences so after long discussions with them and their families we ruled them out.

Our overriding objective was always to make a programme that could benefit children - not traumatise them further.

Which is how we ended up focusing on Joe, Bradley, Sarika and Katie. They range in age from eight to 11 and each of them has lost someone close to them.

Putting the programme together has been an intensely moving experience for the team. It's not easy listening to what these children have to say but each of them was adamant that by sharing their experiences - they felt they could help other children facing similar circumstances.

And actually, on balance, it's not at all depressing. There's definite uplift and inspiration in each of their tales and this is what we want our audience to hear.

We have put a considerable amount of work into covering bereavement responsibly with the overall intention of offering guidance and support on a subject that is rarely tackled or discussed in children's programmes.

Watch it if you can and let us know what you think.

Gone is on the CBBC channel on 30 March and on BBC One on 31 March.

Sinead Rocks is editor of Newsround

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