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Keeping Children Safe Online
Children today are growing up in a fast-changing world where they have to learn to be safe online as well as in the physical world. As a school we are committed to developing children who can recognise both the benefits as well as the risks of the online world.
Helping your child stay safe
The best way to help your child to be safe when using the internet and new technologies is to talk to them and make sure they understand these simple rules:
- We never give out personal details to our online ‘friends’. We can use a nickname when logging on and we don’t share our full name, email address, mobile number, school name or any photos, including photos of our family or friends. Any pictures or videos sent online can be changed or shared without permission
- We talk to our families about what we are doing online and who we talk to online. It is always best to use a computer or tablet in a shared family space so that my online ‘friends’ can see we have a trusted adult near by
- If we receive a message that upsets or confuses us, we do not reply but save the message and show our parents or other trusted adults
- Spam, junk email and junk texts are never true and should never be acted upon. We don’t reply or send them to anyone else, we just delete them
- We don’t ever open files sent to us from people we don’t know. They could contain a virus, or worse – an inappropriate image or film
- An online ‘friend’ is anyone we have not met in real life; no matter how long we have been in contact with them online
- We understand that some people are cruel and lie online and that it’s better to keep online ‘friends’ online. We should never meet up with any online ‘friends’ without an adult we trust
- We make sure we know how to block someone online and report them if we feel uncomfortable
Most importantly, your child needs to know that they are able to talk to you and you need to emphasise the point that it’s never, ever too late to tell someone (parent, care-giver or teacher) if something they have seen or read on the internet makes them uncomfortable.
We can also help children evaluate the content they see on line by considering these questions:
- Is this website/URL/email fake? How can I tell?
- What does this cookie do and what information am I sharing?
- Is this person who they say they are?
- Why does someone want me to see this?
- Why does someone want me to send this?
- Why would someone want me to believe this?
- Why does this person want my personal information?
- What’s behind this post?
- Is this too good to be true?
- Is this fact or opinion?
While we continue to teach e-safety at school, we want to also support parents with keeping their children safe online at home. Online safety guides can be found at: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/#guides
You might also like to do an internet safety quiz with your child to start the conversation about how to stay safe online You can find a quiz for 7-11 year olds at https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022/quiz-7-11
Please follow the links for the school’s acceptable user agreements:
Parents Acceptable User Agreement