How safe is your child online?

At Wickhambrook Primary Academy, we know that technology can be a wonderful tool for enhancing learning and communicating with others, but we also know that we need to teach children about the potential risks when using technology. In a world where technology plays a leading role Online Safety is a key priority for the wellbeing and safety of our pupils. Therefore, e-Safety is an absolutely crucial area of a child’s education, and we are committed to raising awareness and educating children in this area. E-Safety is taught to all ages through our Computing curriculum as well as within other areas of the curriculum.

We have security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any Online Safety incidents are recorded. Online Safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online. Using the 4 C’s created by the Safer Internet Centre is a useful starting point to keeping children safe online which are embedded through our Computing curriculum:

Please CLICK HERE for useful information from Safer Internet Day for Parents/Carers.

At Virgin Media O2, their experts have created a children’s internet safety test to help build awareness for parents and children of all ages to ensure they are better protected online. https://www.virginmedia.com/blog/online-safety/childrens-internet-safety-test

Conduct

We make children aware of the impact they have through the choices they make when communicating online or offline. It is important that children are aware of who is able to view, and potentially share, what they put online.

· Keep personal information safe and do not share with people you do not know.

· Discuss with your child the importance of reporting inappropriate conversations, messages, images and behaviours and how this can be done.

· Make children aware of their ‘Digital Footprint’: once something is online, it is often difficult to change.

· We want to empower children to be responsible for their actions and ensure that they know how to report unkind behaviours.

Content

Some online content is not suitable for children and may be hurtful or harmful. This is true for content accessed and viewed via social networks, online games, blogs and websites. It’s important for children to consider the reliability of online material and be aware that it might not be true or written with a bias.

· Internet filtering systems can be set up to prevent young people from accessing inappropriate content – guidance is available here and here.

· Beware of publishing personal/confidential information about yourself or others, as this could put you at risk.

See below for information from the NSPCC regarding Report Remove which has been developed by the NSPCC and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to minimise the online availability of images that meet the legal definition of child sexual abuse material and a tool for reporting nude, sexual images or videos that may have been shared online, to see if they can be removed.

Report Remove information CLICK HERE

Report Remove poster CLICK HERE

· Encourage children to question sources of information and teach them about assessing reliability. · Use Guided Access features on iPads or other tablets.

Contact

The Internet opens up a wide variety of networks that children would otherwise not have access to.

· Regularly reviewing friends lists and removing unwanted contacts is a useful step.

· Privacy settings online may also allow you to customise the information that each friend is able to access.

· If you have concerns that your child is, or has been, the subject of inappropriate sexual contact or approach by another person, it’s vital that you report it to the police via the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (www.ceop.police.uk).

CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) is an organisation run by the NCA (National Crime Agency), and is therefore government run. They are tasked with keeping children (and adults) safe while online. As well as offering many resources to educate children in this area, they are also somewhere where safety concerns can be raised if required. We teach the children in KS2 about this ‘report’ feature (while encouraging them to speak to an adult and complete it together wherever possible) and have included a link above so that parents can familiarise themselves with it too. You will also see the link on various social networking and messaging websites.

Click on the CEOP logo here if you are worried about online abuse, this button has been developed to offer children, young people, parents/carers and professionals working 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.

· If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, this can also be reported online and offline.

· Reinforce with your child the importance of telling a trusted adult straight away if someone is bullying them or making them feel uncomfortable, or if one of their friends is being bullied online.

· Reiterate:

Safe– not giving out any personal information;

Tell – tell someone if you see something that you don’t like or upsets you;

Meet – don’t meet up with someone you have met online.

Commercialism

Young people’s privacy and enjoyment online can sometimes be affected by advertising and marketing schemes, which can also mean inadvertently spending money online, for example within applications.

· Encourage your children to keep their personal information private (please see above)

· Learn how to block both pop ups and spam emails.

· Turn off in-app purchasing on devices where possible.

· Use a family email address when filling in online forms.