Internet Safety

Internet Safety is something which is taught throughout the year, in all classes. The children are taught how to be responsible users of the internet and how to keep themselves safe. They learn about keeping their passwords to themselves and what to do if they encounter a problem whilst they are using the internet. 

We encourage parents to promote safe and responsible use of technology at home. If you need support, please look at the information and website links below for advice, guidance and activities you can do with your child to support their learning. 

Share aware
Please have a look at the follwing helpful guide to help parents keep their children safe while online and using social networks 

How to guides for parents:

Useful Websites 

Get Safe Online

Free expert advice about how to stay safe on-line and how to keep others around you safe too.

https://www.getsafeonline.org/

Childnet

International Cartoons to illustrate 5 e-safety SMART rules and include a real life SMART Crew of young people, who guide the cartoon characters in their quest, and help them make safe online decisions.

http://www.childnet.com/resources/the-adventures-of-kara-winston-and-the-smart-crew

Think U Know - Internet

A website for 8-10 year olds to explain the dangers of the internet and how to keep themselves safe.

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/

Kidsmart

Website with information of how to act responsibly and stay safe when using the internet.

http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/

What are viruses and malware?

A guide to what viruses and malware are.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zcmbgk7

CBBC Stay Safe

A website to test your internet safety knowledge with Hacker, listen to some Stay Safe songs with Helen Skelton, News Kids On the Block and Bobby Lockwood and get some tips from the Horrible Histories gang.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows/stay-safe

Disney Internet Safety

A page designed by Disney to help you and your family stay safe online.

http://family.disney.co.uk/internet-safety

Think U Know - Younger Children

A website with different cartoons for younger children.

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld/

Think U Know

Younger Children Activities from CEOP for younger children.

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/LeeandKim/

Better Internet for Kids

A website with lots of information on how to be safe on-line.

https://www.betterinternetforkids.eu/?uuid=06ec666f-e6d5-4edb-9cbf-235dcdeba238&groupId=10137

Cyberbullying

If you are worried about cyberbullying, there are lots of places you can go to for help. 

For Kids: 

For Parents: 

  • Family Lives: 0808 800 2222

  • Kidscape: 08451 205 204

Reporting an incident. 

Has someone acted inappropriately towards you online, or to a child or young person you know? It may be inappropriate chat, being asked to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or someone being insistent on meeting up. You can report it to CEOP (A National Crime Agency command) to investigate. 

https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

Have more questions or concerns about Internet Safety? Contact us

Staying safe in the holidays

Please make sure you know what your child is doing online. Everyone needs to keep their security settings high to ensure your children stay safe.

Internet Safety for Children

Visit CEOP’s online safety centre, www.thinkuknow.co.uk which has internet safety tips for parents and children. Also see http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/

  • Install a websafe browser on computers. In addition to browser safety settings you can use ClickCEOP addons to give your child quick access to help, advice and the ability to report visit  www.ceop.police.uk/browser-safety
  • Ask your child to show you the sites they use and help them to create strong passwords for any they log into. A combination of numbers, capital letters and symbols is ideal.
  • Talk to your child’s mobile phone operator about filtering software to block inappropriate content and websites.
  • If your child uses social networking sites to communicate with friends, ensure they set their profile setting to private and together add the ClickCEOP app to their profile on Facebook,  www.facebook.com/clickceop
  • Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends they do not know offline. These include an email address, mobile number, school name, sports club, arrangements for meeting up with friends and any pictures or videos of themselves, their family or friends.
  • Make your children aware that they need to think carefully about the information, videos and pictures they put online or exchange with friends. Once published online or shared, they have lost control and anyone can change or share the images of them.
  • If your child receives spam or junk email and texts, remind them never to believe their contents, reply to them or use them.
  • It's not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they don't know. They won't know what they contain - it could be a virus, or worse - an inappropriate image or film.
  • Help your child to understand that some people lie online and that therefore, it's better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust.
  • Always make sure your child feels comfortable in being able to come to you or someone they trust if they are worried about anything online. Teach young people how to block someone online and report them if they feel uncomfortable. Most sites will have guidance  on this and any reports can be made directly to the CEOP Centre via www.ceop.police.uk

Popular Apps your child may be using:

Snapchat
Snapchat is a popular photo sharing app for Apple and Android mobile devices, that lets users share their photos for a few seconds before they ‘disappear’. But anyone receiving a pic can keep it by taking a screen shot, or new apps have been developed which enable the picture to be retained without even doing that. The site is being heavily criticised for making it easy for children to be stalked or groomed. The age limit to join the site is 13, but many children do so much younger. 

Ask.fm
On Ask.fm, anonymous users ask other users questions. This means that they can easily hide their identity and effectively, say what they like without any consequences. Bullying and abuse on the site has allegedly led to very traumatic experiences amongst youngsters, in some cases tragically taking their own lives. The site owners have said that they will include a ‘report abuse’ button, provide optional registration and employ more people as moderators.

Yik Yak
"No profiles, no passwords, it's all anonymous", says the app's publicity. Designed as a means of posting news and messages in local communities and on college and school campuses, the app has gained a reputation as a tool for cyber bullies and its use has been banned in many schools in the UK and US.

Habbo
Habbo (full name Habbo Hotel) - is a social networking site aimed at teenagers, although we have heard of children as young as eight years old using it.

Shots of Me (or just Shots)
An app that enables users to take and post selfies, hence using only the front-view camera of their mobile phone. Shots has been subject to widespread concern about its use to send inappropriate photos and possibly resulting cyber bullying and blackmail.

Omegle
Omegle's strapline is "Chat to strangers", so it is clear at the outset that your kids may be letting themselves (and you) in for a number of issues.

Chatroulette
Again, on Chatroulette, kids have no idea who they are talking to on the other end of the screen, an instant cause for concern.

Facebook

Facebook requires everyone to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account. Creating an account with false information is a violation of Facebook’s terms. If school become aware of any children having a Facebook account, they will be reported.

Roblox

Roblox is the world’s largest interactive platform for play that allows kids to imagine, create, and play together in immersive 3D worlds. All the games and experiences on Roblox have been created by the players themselves. Once a player has signed up and created an avatar, they are given their own piece of real estate along with a virtual toolbox (known as “Roblox Studio”) for building. They can monetize their creations to earn “Robux,” a virtual currency on Roblox. Users who are under 13 must have their parent(s) change their date of birth. This requires that a parent's email address be filed on their account so the parent can verify the change.

Musical.ly

Musical.ly 13+ is a free social media music app where users can watch user generated lip sync video, and create video themselves lip-syncing or dancing to music available on the app. It has over 80 millions users.  Choose your music, or mix someone elses video and create your own short music or audio video using filters and video styles. It is a fun lip-sync style app, where users can mime and dance to music they choose from within the app or create their own music videos. Users can also live stream to their Musical.ly friends/followers via Musical.ly’s add on app Live.ly which is also free and available for download only from the Apple app store. People can watch another person’s musical.ly and either:

  •          like (click a heart)
  •          comment (click a dialogue bubble)
  •          ask a question, start a duet!, share on facebook, share on instagram, share on FB messenger, share via twitter or email or text message or vine or link (by clicking the three dots)
  •          shoot a video using the same song or clip (by clicking the spinning circle)