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All Saints Blackheath

Online Safety

 

We participated in Safer Internet Day 2024: Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence, and navigating change online.

Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity to focus on online safety with your child –
whether that’s by using some of the quick activities below, asking your child
what they like to do online, or using their favourite app or game with them.

Below are a number of resources for parents and carers:

Family Online Safety Plan

Family Activities 

Conversation Starters

Please click here for more information. 

CEOP (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) delivers a multi-agency service dedicated to tackling the abuse and exploitation of children in the real and online world. It is often referred to as the online 999. By clicking on the button, young children and parents can get advice on a range of issues such as viruses, hacking and dealing with bullying online.

For reporting online concerns to the police please click on image below

What is Online Safety?

The Internet has become an integral part of children’s lives, enabling them to undertake research for school projects, talk to their friends and access information from around the world. Increasing provision of the Internet in and out of schools brings with it the need to ensure that learners are safe.

Internet development is constantly evolving into ever more innovative areas with many websites enabling amazing creativity and interaction between peers.

Unfortunately though, there are times when Internet use can have a negative effect on children. Schools should be aware of the potential dangers taking measures to ensure safe usage by all.

We will use this section to show you how you can make your children’s experience safer, as well as show you how we are doing this in the school.

Online Safety at School

Our Online Safety curriculum covers the following strands:

We use age appropriate resources from Project Evolve, Thinkuknow and LGfL to establish a safe environment to develop children's understanding of online safety, explore and reflect on their online experiences and generate positive outcomes. 

The Internet - it's a real world out there!

It can be a tough job keeping up to date with kids these days. Just when we thought we were doing OK and could set the video recorder, along comes the Internet. Suddenly we have a new piece of technology, new language and new challenges for us parents! This guide will help you understand the online safety issues and gives practical help as you talk to your children about their Internet use with the SMART Safety Tips.
So what are the dangers?
The Internet is like bringing a city into your living room: there are the exciting places for children to go and enjoy but also lots of places where you wouldn't want your children to go unsupervised! 
Children are keen to explore the online world but are often not mature enough to manage or understand the risks they come across. Areas for online risks can be categorised into the 3 C's - Content, Contact and Conduct, and can be commercial, aggressive or sexual in nature.
  • Inappropriate CONTENT - keep an eye on the material your children are looking at and agree the ground rules about sites/games/apps your children use and how they behave.
  • Potential CONTACT - from someone online who may wish to harm them. Children must re-learn the "stranger=danger" rule in a new context and never give out personal details or meet alone with anyone they've contacted via the Internet e.g. in game chat, friend requests.
  • How they CONDUCT and what they do online  - this will help you understand any conduct risks and see whether they are chatting on anonymous sites or posting comments about themselves.
  • How they interact with COMMERCE -  in-app purchases or add-ons can be very tempting and pose risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams

It is essential to be realistic - banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around the safe use is essential.

Can't I just use parental controls?

Filtering software and parental controls can help to block a lot of inappropriate material but they are not 100% effective and are no substitute for good parental involvement. Internet use at school is generally filtered, supervised and safe. But many children use the internet at friend's homes,  libraries and youth clubs where there may be no filters and little supervision. It's therefore important to help educate your children about how to behave online and discuss problems which they may have. It helps to keep the computer in a family room - not tucked away in a bedroom.

What about mobile phones?

The issues about being careful online apply equally to mobile telephones. It is very important to encourage your children not to give out their mobile numbers to strangers or people they cannot trust completely.  Discuss apps/games they use and the importance of age restrictions - many social media apps are for ages 13+.  Talk about the sort of text messages your children are receiving and sending.

Stick to the positive

Encourage your children to stick to the fun and positive sites on the Net that reinforce their interests. Just as you look out for good TV programmes for children take the time to find the best and most useful websites for you and your family. Communicating your issues. If you start by telling your child never to do something most children will ask "why not?" and then try to find out! Discussing the potential dangers with your children therefore needs care and sensitivity and involves helping them to see for themselves how they might get into difficulty. Most children will respond more positively if you encourage them to be SMART or "Cool" on the Internet rather than giving them a list of "Dos and don'ts"! The following SMART Safety Tips have been written especially for children aged 8-14 years.
  • SAFE - Staying safe involves being careful and not giving out your name, address, mobile phone no., school name or password to people online.
  • MEETING someone you have contacted in cyberspace can be dangerous. Only do so with your parent's/carer's permission, and then when they can be present.
  • ACCEPTING e-mails or opening files from people you don't really know or trust can get you into trouble - they may contain viruses or nasty messages.
  • RELIABLE - Someone online maybe lying about who they are, and information you find on the Internet may not be reliable.
  • TELL your parent or carer if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried.

Useful websites for parents

LGFL ParentSafe is a dedicated portal to help parents keep children safe online, offering parents / carers support and advice on safe settings, parental controls and monitoring, apps and games, talking to children about life online, screen time and key topics like bullying, fake news and more.

The "Thinkuknow" website is brought to you by The Child Exploitation and Online protection (CEOP) centre. It is a guide to online safety for young people. It offers  e-safety advice and resources for children and parents. 

Internet Matters is a new online portal designed for parents to access simple, easy and practical advice about online safety for their children, right through from pre-school to teens. It provides tips on protecting children from online grooming, cyberbullying, privacy and identity theft and inappropriate content. Internet matters is a not-for profit organisation set up by BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.

Ask About Games provides details on PEGI ratings, parental controls and advice on video games. It aims to answer questions parents and players may have about video game ratings and provide advice on how to game responsibility and get the most of them for their family. 

ParentZone is an online site devoted to providing expert information to families and schools. They check and provide a range of issues with the aim of improving outcomes for children in a digital world.

 

 

O2 has resources which are designed to help parents have more regular conversations with their children about online safety – enabling more families to enjoy the digital world with confidence.

Childline provides free advice and information to those aged 18 years and below, including advice on 'online and mobile safety'.  

 

Online Safety Policy and Acceptable Use Policies

Please click here for our Online Safety policy 

Please click here for our Acceptable Use Policy for EYFS and KS1

Please click here for our Acceptable Use Policy for KS2

Please click here for our Remote Learning Acceptable Use Policy

Please click here for our Acceptable Use Policy for Parents