Online Safety

With students spending more time online to do schoolwork and other activities, there could be an additional risk. This is why it is more important than ever that students, parents and carers know how to stay safe online.

It is crucial that children and young people know how to behave appropriately online to help them recognise when things do not feel right and take action early. As a family you can start by talking openly about how to use the internet safely, and how to seek help if something goes wrong

It is important that parents and carers talk to their students about online safety, show an interest in what they are doing online and ask what they like and dislike about the apps and services they use. Discuss age appropriate ‘ground rules’ like how much time they spend online doing different things and what games and apps are appropriate to use. Also consider setting up and reviewing age-appropriate parental controls. Setting parental controls can be a quick and effective tool to help protect students online.

Useful Websites

Thinkuknow provides advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) on staying safe online
Parent info is a collaboration between Parentzone and the NCA providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations
Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support
Internet matters provides age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, and a host of practical tips to help students get the most out of their digital world
London Grid for Learning has support for parents and carers to keep their students safe online
Net-aware has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC, including a guide to social networks, apps and games
Let’s Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep students safe from online radicalization
Keeping children safe online | NSPCC has lots of information of how to keep children safe, how to talk about online safety and up to date information of parental controls
http://ceop.police.uk/ A useful tool for reporting inappropriate communication online

Harmful or upsetting content

Get support by:

reporting harmful online content to the UK Safer Internet Centre
getting government advice and trusted resources from Educate Against Hate on safeguarding from radicalisation, building resilience to extremism, and promoting shared values

Bullying or abuse online

You can:

get advice on reporting online abuse from the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection command
get advice and support from Anti-Bullying Alliance for children who are being bullied
Schools may also wish to use resources such as Tootoot to provide a confidential route for pupils to report bullying or abuse.

What risks might my children experience online?

	Content (Child is exposed to this material)	Contact (Child is communicating)	Conduct (Child is actively doing Something themselves)
Commercial	Adverts Spam	Personal information given	Illegal downloading Gambling Hacking Financial Scams
Aggressive	Violent content	Being Bullied Being Stalked	Bullying others
Sexual	Pornographic images/text	Being Groomed Meeting Strangers	Uploading inappropriate material
Values	Racism Bias Misleading info	Is subject to persuasion (self-harm/anorexia)	Providing misleading info to others

Information on the table was taken from “Safer Children in a Digital World” – a report by Dr Tanya Byron.

You can download for free the report or its summary on the Department for Education website

Top Tips for students

Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.
Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online most people can see it and may be able to download it, it’s not just yours anymore.
Keep your privacy settings as high as possible
Never give out your passwords
Don’t befriend people you don’t know
Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to your parent or carer about people suggesting you do
Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are
Think carefully about what you say before you post something online
Respect other people’s views, even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views doesn’t mean you need to be rude
If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried: leave the website, turn off your computer if you want to and tell a trusted adult immediately.

Top Tips for Parents

Talk to your child about what they’re up to online. Be a part of their online life; involve the whole family and show an interest.

Encourage your child to go online and explore sites which are fun, educational and that will help them to develop online skills.
Keep up-to-date with your child’s development online.
Set boundaries in the online world just as you would in the real world. Think about what they might see, what they share, who they talk to and how long they spend online.
Keep all equipment that connects to the internet in a family space.
Know what connects to the internet and how. Make sure you’re aware of which devices that your child uses connect to the internet, such as their phone or games console.
Use parental controls on devices that link to the internet, such as the TV, laptops, computers, games consoles and mobile phones.

E-safety in school

As part of our computing lessons all students spend their first few weeks investigating e-safety and all aspects of staying safe online. Online safety forms part of the curriculum for all computing lessons in Y7 and Y8. In Y7 students study Esafety, they explore how viruses are spread, importance of secure passwords. They also look at cyber bullying, how to protect themselves against grooming and their own digital footprint. In Y8 they then apply this knowledge by creating a website to provide advice on these issues and online gaming.

We also cover online safety across the PSHE curriculum and raise awareness of online safety through assemblies.

All students are encouraged to report any negative issues they may encounter online to a trusted adult which includes all school staff. All Students have a ‘safety’ assembly which includes a focus on e-safety, cyber bullying and the possible consequences of inappropriate internet use. Students are informed how to report cyber bullying and e-safety posters are displayed in prominent positions around school. Students have also been made aware of the sanctions for any poor behaviour online towards students or staff. Details of this can be found in the Behaviour for Learning Policy.

Online safety is also covered in our anti – bullying policy and safeguarding policy
Safeguarding Policy

Anti-Bullying

Advice on how to set up Protection Controls through your broadband providers.

The 4 big internet providers in the UK – BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media have come together to produce helpful video guides, which may help you to download and set up protection controls they offer. Full details can be found at

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers/parental-controls-offered-your-home-internet-provider

Guides to setting up Parental Controls by Provider (in no particular order)

How to set up the parental controls offered by BT – UK Safer Internet Centre

How to set up the parental controls offered by Sky – UK Safer Internet Centre

How to set up the parental controls offered by Virgin Media – UK Safer Internet Centre

How to set up the parental controls offered by TalkTalk – UK Safer Internet Centre

Parental controls – UK Safer Internet Centre – Lots of helpful information here to begin using controls of also teaching children how to gain the skills they need to stay safe online.

Use Parental Controls to Keep Your Child Safe | NSPCC – Advises you how to set up parental controls for games consoles, apps and other electronics.

Screen time and mental wellbeing

While it is comforting to know that we can stay connected using the internet, it does mean parents and carers have had to relax their rules on ‘screen time’. UKSIC has published a free template to help parents set boundaries on internet usage that the whole family signs-up to.

UKSIC family agreement template

BBC Bitesize has these great tips on how to manage screen time without clashing.

Talk to your child about using the internet safely.
Take an interest in the websites, apps, and games they enjoy.
Lead by example – use the internet positively and try to ditch the screen when you can.
Set age-appropriate boundaries but be realistic!
Spend time doing a positive activity together offline.

Read the full BBC Bitesize article.

Social Media

Social media advice and support can be found here Social media advice hub | Internet Matters