Online Safety
We have updated our guidance for parents and carers to keep children safe online.
Online Grooming New Campaign
A new safety campaign from Internet Watch Foundation aims to help parents have conversations with their children about keeping their 'door' closed to child sexual abusers. The campaign includes a booklet for parents, explaining the risks, explaining why children are vulnerable, and suggests practice steps that parents can take.
The mnemonic used in the campaign is TALK:
- TALK to your child about online sexual abuse. Start the conversation – and listen to their concerns.
- AGREE ground rules about the way you use technology as a family.
- LEARN about the platforms and apps your child loves. Take an interest in their online life.
- KNOW how to use tools, apps and settings that can help to keep your child safe online.
https://talk.iwf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/A-guide-for-parents-and-carers-v7.pdf
https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/hot-topics
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/apps-guide/
https://parentzone.org.uk/advice/parent-guides
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/wellbeing-apps-guide-for-kids/
Top tips for 11-19s
- Protect your online reputation: ‘think before you post.’ Content posted online can last forever and could be shared publicly by anyone.
- Know where to find help: understand how to use blocking and deleting tools. If something happens that upsets you online, it’s never too late to tell someone. You tell your family, your tutor, your Head Of Year, your Student Support Officer, Ms O'Brien or Lify
- Don’t give in to pressure: if you lose your inhibitions you've lost control; once you’ve pressed send you can’t take it back.
- Respect the law: use reliable services and know how to legally access the music, film and TV you want.
- Acknowledge your sources: use trustworthy content and remember to give credit when using others’ work/ideas.
Tips to keep children and young people safe in the game
- · Encourage your child to set get games to private and only play with people that they know.
- · If they are the Host of the game, advise them to be more vigilant of what players are saying or doing to remove anyone that is not respecting others or sharing inappropriate content.
- · If they do choose to play public games, make sure they keep their personal information private, particularly if they are playing with people they don’t know.
- · For young children using Discord to speak to players in the game, encourage them to put the sound through the PC speakers rather than on a headset so you can be aware of what is being said.
- · Talk to them about issues such as cyberbullying and online grooming so they know how to recognise these risks and have some coping strategies to use if they come across them in and out of the game.
Please click below to access U.K. safer Internet Centre
Please click below to access Childnet
1https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers
Digital Passport – how to help your child
This Digital Passport is designed to help you have conversations with the children in your care about their online lives. Children and young people don’t see a boundary between online life and ‘real life’ so understanding what they do online and why is crucial t getting to know each child. We hope this document provides a way for conversations about online life to happen – not in an intrusive or controlling way but by helping promote understanding and enabling you to provide support. As you care for children who may have experienced trauma or rejection, being able to help them to recover and thrive in all aspects of their lives will be at the heart of your success. Online risk and harm are not encountered to the same extent by all children. Research has found that vulnerable and differently-abled children, especially those who have experience of the care system, are more likely to encounter risks. They are also much more likely to benefit from the connection, education and entertainment the internet brings1 – so removing access is not the answer. This document is only one step towards fully integrating their digital lives into the support they receive. It may help you find additional ways to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights in the digital world. We hope this is useful for you.
https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DigitalPassport-Introduction.pdf
https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DigitalPassport-Adult-V1-Forms.pdf