Here are some useful tips to help.
Keeping safe online:
- Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends they do not know offline.
- Explain to your children what information about them is personal:i.e. 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. Small pieces of information can easily be pieced together to form a comprehensive insight into their lives and daily activities.
- Make your children aware that they need to think carefully about the information and pictures they post on their profiles. Inform them that once published online, anyone can change or share these images of them.
- It can be easy to forget that the internet is not a private space and as a result sometimes young people engage in risky behaviour online. Advise your children not to post any pictures, videos or information on their profiles, or in chat rooms, that they would not want a parent or carer to see.
- If your child receives spam junk or 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 keep communication open for a child to know it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.
What can you do at home?
At St Mary’s Primary School we care greatly about keeping our children safe, both at school and out in the wider world. Internet safety, or esafety as it is often called, is a part of our computing curriculum and our everyday teaching. A large part of that role is also down to parents. We encourage and work in partnership with parents to ensure that their computers and mobile devices are safe for our young people to use. In this way we can ensure that we nurture healthy, positive, worldly wise children that know how to keep themselves and others safe.
Check out how to keep your child safe online with these great websites:
Childnet – Help for Parents and Carers
The Guardian: How to keep your child safe online
Your guide to the social networks your children uses. Stay up to date and keep your child safe in today’s digital world.
This is a good site for parents to learn about the games and apps children are using and how to monitor them.
