Online Safety
We work hard to ensure that each of our families have a strong understanding of what it means to be safe online. We provide age appropriate e-safety sessions through our PSHE, Citizenship and IT curriculums as well as through our Focus days and enrichment activities.
However, understanding the digital world, and the rapid transitions and developments that are made within it, can feel overwhelming at times; keeping up with changes and finding the right information for you can be confusing, particularly with a wealth of resources available.
Whilst we work hard to keep children safe in school, we know we need to be in partnership with yourselves as parents and carers to educate and safeguard outside of the school environment.
The following information and links will hopefully help in keeping you up to date with digital changes, but also give you a good understanding for what you can share with and talk to your child about.
General links and information:
Keeping Children Safe Online
Your guide to the social networks. Stay up to date and keep your child safe in today's digital world.
The purpose of the guide is to provide parents with the information they need to be able to keep their children safe online, to encourage parents to look for themselves and form their own views about the appropriateness of popular sites, and to give parents the confidence to facilitate balanced and informed conversations about what their children are doing online. It is based on other parents' experiences and the views of young people.
Thinkuknow
Thinkyouknow.co.uk have recently provided advice to parents and guardians about young people taking and sharing naked pictures of themselves. They provide answers to the most frequently asked questions to ensure that we are keeping our young people safe. For more information on this, click here.
Find out what’s good, what’s not and what you can do about it. If you look after young people there’s an area for you too – with resources you can use in the classroom or at home. Most importantly, there’s also a place which anyone can use to report if they feel uncomfortable or worried about someone they are chatting to online.
Child Exploitation & Online Protection
The CEOP Command works to protect children from the harm of sexual abuse and exploitation both online and offline.
The Click CEOP button (pictured above) has been developed to offer children, young people, parents/carers and professionals working with these groups with a simple and convenient mechanism for gaining access to trusted online safety advice, help and support. It also provides access to an online mechanism for reporting known or suspected child sexual exploitation or child sexual abuse directly to CEOP.
This is offered as a convenient and potentially less intimidating method of reporting these sensitive types of crime, alternative to face-to-face and telephone reporting to local police forces.
How can you prevent Sexting?
Sexting means sending sexually explicit messages and/or suggestive images, such as nudes.
While the name suggests that this is only done via text messages, these types of messages can be sent via any messaging service, including emails and social media.
This also means that sexts can be sent or received via a number of electronic devices, such as smartphones, computers and tablets. For more information on how to prevent this click here.
Digital Parenting
The digital world can be somewhat daunting so to help with any concerns you may have regarding staying safe online please refer to the Digital Parenting Magazine.
This can provide some very useful advice and guidance on cyberbullying and online peer pressure.
Support can also be found on setting family technology rules and online parental control.
Parents can download the PDF file following the link above.
Childnet
A non-profit organisation working with others to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
Childnet’s mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
We work directly with children and young people from the ages of 3 to 18 on a weekly basis, as well as parents, carers, teachers and professionals, finding out about their real experiences online, and the positive things they are doing as well as sharing safety advice.
Please click here to view Childnet's Parent's Guide which gives advice on how to begin discussions about staying safe online.
Childline
ChildLine is a private and confidential service for children and young people up to the age of 19.
You can contact a ChildLine counsellor about anything -no problem is too big or too small. Call free on 0800 1111, have a 1-2-1 chat online or send an email.
Internet Watch Foundation
The IWF was established in 1996 by the internet industry to provide the UK internet Hotline for the public and IT professionals to report criminal online content in a secure and confidential way.
The Hotline service can be used anonymously to report content within our remit.
We work in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, and international partners to minimise the availability of this content, specifically:
- child sexual abuse images hosted anywhere in the world*
- criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK
- non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK
Internet Matters
Internet Matters is an independent, not-for-profit organisation to help parents keep their children safe online.
The possibilities of this new connected world are exciting and infinite. The internet is the most important innovation of our time, if not all time. It makes it simple to connect, communicate, learn and share.
At Internet Matters we believe in maximising children’s potential online, while staying safe.
Barnado's
Get help if you're a parent or carer
We can help you make sure your child gets the best start in life
As well as offering services which your child may be able to access in your local area, we also provide guidance and support online for parents, carers and families.
Preventing and Tackling Bullying
Guidance for schools on preventing and responding to bullying.
Managing Online Safety:
Talking to Children about online risks:
Childnet International Parental Toolkit
The Parent and Carer Toolkit is a collection of three resources designed to help you talk to your child about their online life, manage boundaries around family internet use and point you in the direction of where to get further help and support. The toolkit includes:
- Resource Sheet
- Let's talk about life online
- Family agreement poster
Internet Matters - Critical Thinking Guide
Online Critical Thinking Guide
Tips to empower children to make smarter informed choices to navigate their online world safely.
Online Relationships:
Internet Matters - Stranger danger
Learning how to interact with others online can be a steep curve at any age. In this article via Internetmatters.org one mum shares her experiences of helping her children navigate stranger danger and online relationships.
Safer Internet - Social media guides
Safer Internet - Social media guides
UK Safer Internet Centre has a wealth of short guides/links online to help parents understand, set up and report on social media.
The guides include:
- Askfm
- Google +
- Kik
- Moshi Monsters
- MovistarPlanet
- TikTok
- Periscope
- Snapchat
- Tumblr
- YouTube
Childnet - Online grooming
What is online grooming? How does it happen? What can we do to protect children of all age ranges? Childnet is here to help with answers and resources for parents and carers available here.
Personal Safety
The Diana Award - Milestones for Young People
The Diana Award (Anti-bullying Campaign) has a wealth of resources available around online safety and bullying (try filtering by Online, and Parent), one of which is 'Milestones for Young People and Tech'. This is a timeline of tech and social media platforms that young people engage with, and the legal age for joining.
Internet Matters - Socialising safely
From tips on what to do online as a family, to online safety, Internetmatters.org has lots of helpful advice. This particular article delves into both of the above with advice on video calling, parental controls, and creating a digital agreement with your child.
KCC Online Safety for your family
KCC provide some useful information and additional links to support online safety.
- Staying safe online for parents and children
- Social media
- Mobile phone safety
- Useful websites
- o Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)use the report abuse button for advice and to report online abuse such as grooming.
- o Childnet Internationalis a non-profit organisation working with others to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
- o Get safe onlineprovides practical advice on how to protect yourself, your computers and mobile devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and other problems encountered online.
- o Internet Mattersis an independent, not-for-profit organisation to help parents keep their children safe online.
- o Internet Watch Foundationfind out how report illegal content online.
- o NSPCC online safetyread helpful advice and tools you can use to keep your children safe online.
- o NSPCC online safety for children with special educational needs and disabilitiesread helpful advice for parents.
- o UK Safer Internet Centredownload tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet.
SWGFL – Setting up social media safely
The South West Grid for Learning have created short checklists on all the things you need to know about setting up and safely using a number of gaming, instant messaging and general social media applications.
This includes:
- Snapchat
- Roblox
- TikTok
- Netflix
- PS5
CrimeStoppers - Device theft
Our phones and tablets hold a wealth of personal information about us, and quite often we take this for granted. If you phone is not protected by security, losing it could mean thieves get access to your personal information. CrimeStoppers have provided advice on how to keep safe.
Privacy and Security
ThinkUKnow - CEOP security and reporting
ThinkuKnow and CEOP provide a place where you can report cybercrime, but also has some really useful information on understanding cyber security and parental controls.
Online safety issues
Online safety issues
The internet is a fantastic place for children to learn, create and have fun. However, they may occasionally have to deal with a variety of sometimes challenging online safety issues and risks.
See advice on a range of online safety issues that your child may face to help them enjoy the digital world safely and smartly.
UK Safer Internet - Video conferencing
Do you feel like you fully understand how data is collected on your child by video conferencing software companies? UK Safer Internet has a full breakdown of how some of the popular video meeting apps store your information.
It's also important when video conferencing to be aware of background information! Keep personal information and data out of the background when setting up an area for your child to chat to their friends in or for you to hold meetings in.
Online Bullying
Internet Matters - Videos and resources
Internetmatters.org is a great place to find a wealth of information about the online world. They have a whole section on Cyberbullying available to read/watch and download.
Did you know that 1/8 twelve to fifteen year olds have been bullied on social media? That makes it as likely to happen as face-to-face bullying according to Ofcom.
Childnet International - Understanding bullying and resources
Not sure how to talk to your child about cyberbullying? Childnet has some really helpful conversation starters and top tips for dealing with cyberbullying.
The impact cyberbullying can have on each child differs greatly, and it's not always easy to know just how much it is affecting someone in the first instance. Here is a helpful page on starting the conversation with your child.
Online Reputation
Safer Schools - Rule 34
The internet is no stranger to harmful content. Safer Schools App network monitors risks and has recently picked up on something called 'Rule 34' - an internet concept where users draw or depict their favourite characters or cartoons in sexually inappropriate ways - sometimes referred to as 'fan-art'.
This can be distressing for children who are searching for items related to their favourite cartoons online, and can shake their view of the world. Find out more about how to manage that here.
Internet Matters - Protecting your reputation and future self
As employers and educators turn to social media nowadays to find out more about potential candidates, our past posts or conversations can follow and have a negative impact on how we are seen.
Internet matters have provided some great resources for helping understand how this happens and how to teach young people to maintain a positive presence online.
South West Grid for Learning - Online nudity and illicit messages
Sending illicit messages via social media or messaging apps happens, whether those are text or images (or both!), and it is becoming increasingly more common in young people. Knowing how to handle it if it happens can make the difference between an incident never happening again, or things getting out of hand. Find out more here.
'So you got naked online...' is a resource for young people who may find themselves in a situation where they (or someone else) have put an image or video online and lost control over who is sharing it. It aims to offer children, young people and parents advice, and provides strategies to support issues related to incidents such as these.
Self-Image and Identity
The Diana Award - Identity and screen time
Getting caught up in a social media hole happens to us all - no matter what age we are. It's so easy to continue clicking link after link, letting the time slip by. This can also impact our wellbeing and how we see ourselves - particularly if the content is not overtly positive. The Diana Award offers some advice on how to manage screen time.
The Pressure for Perfection resource kit is designed for children aged 11+ and covers topics such as digital image manipulation, spotting pressures from being online and the dangers of misrepresentation on social media on the self and self identity.
MediaSmart - Body image and advertising
MediaSmart have provided a number of guides and a film for different ages of children to provide an engaging introduction to body image and advertising.
These outline how we as guardians and parents can play a key role in supporting a body-positive childhood and spot those media manipulated images.
Internet Matters - ID theft and influencers
There are a number of ways children's data is collected - through interactions with a smart toy to the setting up of social media. Being aware of how this is collected and where is a good starting point to ensure you child's data stay safe. This article helps you to understand why you child may be at risk of identity theft and what to do about privacy online.
Being part of an online community can be a great thing, but too much time spent looking at unhelpful influencers, who aren't transparent about why they are posting advertisements, or not being fully truthful in their videos can be damaging. Find out more about the impact influences can have here.
ThinkUKnow - Supporting LGBTQ+ young people online
ThinkUKnow have provided some helpful information around helping your child understand themselves and the world online from an LGBTQ+ context. For many young people the internet can provide them with the opportunity to find out more about themselves or meet like-minded people, but as parents we need to ensure this can happen safely.