Online Safety

The Online World

The online world is an integral part of children’s lives, enabling them to do school work, talk to and play their friends and access information from around the world. Increasing online activity in and out of schools brings with it the need to ensure that children are safe.

Online development is constantly evolving into ever more innovative areas with many websites and services enabling amazing creativity and interaction between peers. Unfortunately though, there are times when Internet use can have a negative effect on children. Schools and parents need to be aware of the potential dangers and take measures to ensure safe usage by all.

At School

At school we take several steps to ensure that children are kept safe while online. We use targeted filtering to prevent access to websites and services that are not suitable or may be dangerous. Internet access is supervised and we monitor the websites that are accessed.
We use a controlled communication system where we monitor the children’s emails and interactions and we limit the people that children can communicate with. These steps are taken protect the children from unsuitable messages and identify possible cyber bullying or safeguarding issues.
Children are also taught how to use the technology safely so that they can be googd online citizens and keep themselves and others safe.

At Home

Parents play a key role in helping children to stay safe online. Keeping up with the fast changing technology available to children and the risks associated with that can seem overwhelming. But you don’t need to be an expert on the internet to help keep your child stay safe online.

To help parents we have put together a selection of resources to help you support your child to use the internet safely, responsibility and positively.

Social Media

Social media is hugely popular. Every day millions of people actively use sites and apps like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. For the majority of people social media is a positive experience, a way to share photos, videos and news and communicate with family and friends all over the world. If you are a parent there’s a good chance your child will want to use social media. If you have very young children, you can probably control their access, but if they have access to laptops, games consoles, tablets and smartphones, it becomes increasingly difficult.

Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have a minimum age policy of 13 and WhatsApp’s is 16. However it’s fairly easy to circumvent this by entering false information. As a parent, the best thing you can do is be aware of the risks of using social media and communicate these to your child. So, if a problem occurs, you are both ready.

It’s really important to talk to your children about social media, try to understand why they use it, and inform them of potential dangers. This allows you to understand what they are doing and encourages them to think about the implications of their online actions and how they behave.

We would like remind parents that the minimum age to open an account on most social media platforms is 13. Whilst many parents choose to allow younger children to use these services we cannot recommend this.

Further social media advice is available below.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/social-media/http://www.net-aware.org.uk/
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802272?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=2803240
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/social-media-guides/youtube

Gaming

Gaming is extremely popular with children and young people. It can be difficult to keep up with the latest games and how they work. Here a few tips to support happier, safer gaming for your child.

Talk with your child about gaming. Talk with your child to learn the games they like and the content and features of these. This will help you to understand more about how your child plays games and how appropriate different games are. You can use NSPCC's online safety hub to find out more information on safer gaming.

Set boundaries and safety settings. Internet Matters provides step-by-step guides for putting safety settings in place for each console or device. Spend time setting these up with your child and make sure they know how to block and report on the games they are playing. You should also talk with your child to create an agreement for gaming; think about how much time they can spend, which games they can access, if you will allow in-app purchases and what spaces they can play in. For primary aged children it is advisable to have them play in shared spaces or in the same room as you.

The links below provide more information about selecting suitable games for your children and protecting them against unsuitable games

http://www.askaboutgames.com/
http://www.childnet.com/blog/gaming-resources-for-parents-and-careers
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-games/
https://pegi.info/

Games consoles and other gaming devices provide controls so that parents can have some control over what can be accessed. The links below will provide information on how to use these controls.

X-BOX - https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/family-hub
PlayStation - https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/parental-controls/
Safer Internet Gaming Devices - http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-to-technology/gaming-devices

In Game Chat

While playing games online is often great fun, it's important you understand why your children will chat online, what risks there are and what measures you can take to protect them while they’re playing their favourite games.

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/in-game-chat/

Online Profiles

If you’ve got a young child, make sure safety features are activated. If your child is slightly older, talk through the following safety features together, so your child understands what each one does:

- Private account: The majority of services allow you to set your profile to private. This means only people whose friend request they approve will be allowed to see your child’s account.

- Location: Discourage your child from posting their location. Many apps have a geolocation feature, so make sure this is turned off.

- Tagging: If your child is tagged by someone else, it may appear in their timeline without their approval, so encourage them to set up tagging approval.

- Privacy settings: On Facebook various privacy settings allow you to determine who can see each post. Make sure the default is set to friends ony or private.

- Friend requests: Discourage your child from accepting friend requests from strangers. Where possible change the settings so that only Friends of Friends can request you.

- Blocking users: It might not seem like a nice thing to do, but show your child how to block users and report abuse.

Finally… talk to your child. You might not want your children to use certain sites and services, but banning it is not the most effective option. They may find other ways to use it secretly, and if there is a problem may be too afraid to approach you.

Computers

There are several ways to keep your children safe on your home computer or laptop.

Windows offers parental control systems that allow you to block or control what your children can see. The links below will help you set these up.

Chromebooks
https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/7680868?hl=en-GB

Windows
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/set-up-family

Apple
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh3d6eb198/14.0/mac/14.0

Smartphones and Tablets

There a many mobile devices available now that can access the internet. The websites below provide some helpful information about the potential dangers of mobile devices.

Safer Internet Smartphones - http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-to-technology/smartphones
Safer Internet Tablets - https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers/tablets
Android Parental Controls - https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075738?hl=en-GB
Apple Devices: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201304

Other Devices

Other connected devices such as Smart TVs and Smart Speakers also have controls to protect your children. The link below has more information on all connected devices.

https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-type/parents-guide-technology

Broadband and Mobile Network Internet Restrictions

Broadband, mobile and WiFi providers offer filters to limit the inappropriate content a child might see. You can find more information about this by following the link below.

https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/broadband-mobile/

Report Online Harm