E-Safety
This term, our IT teachers, Ms Chian and Mr Fong, are running an e-safety workshop for parents online. Maria, our secretary, sent a Google sign-up form this week. The date is: Tuesday 4th June 2024 at 9.00am (Our e-safety policy is available to you on Mylifis IS Primary.)
The internet is such an integral part of children’s lives these days. It opens up so many educational and social opportunities, giving them access to, quite literally, a world of information and experiences. Whether on a computer at school, a laptop at home, a games console or a mobile phone, our students are increasingly accessing the internet whenever they can and wherever they are. As you would protect your child in the real world, you will want to make sure that they are safe whatever they are doing. If your child understands the risks and can make sensible and informed choices online, they can get the most from the internet and stay safe whilst doing so – particularly from those people who might seek them out to harm them.
So, how can you protect your child online? The answer is simple. If you understand the internet and understand what the risks are, there are a number of things you can do that will make your child safer online. A large percentage of students access the internet through their mobile phone rather than a computer. This has changed the way that children and young people communicate with their friends and family.
On the whole, our pupils have a very positive experience surfing the web or chatting with their online friends; however, as a parent or guardian, there are some potential risks you should be aware of, such as cyberbullying, downloading and copyright issues, identity theft, excessive use of technology, inappropriate, illegal and harmful content and grooming. This booklet will hopefully help you prevent any issues, such as these from arising and how to deal with them if they do.
Encourage your children to report inappropriate behaviour
If your child is experiencing problems or is being cyberbullied, encourage them to come to you for help. If they are uncomfortable speaking with you, tell them to speak with a trusted adult – an aunt, uncle, a teacher or older sibling – to lend an ear. Be sure your child knows how to report abuse or inappropriate behaviour to social networking sites. With Facebook, for example, they can report abuse by clicking the ‘report’ link. Other social networking sites also have reporting mechanisms.
What to talk to your child about?
- Make sure your child knows how to change their privacy settings.
- Ensure your child is aware that any form of online bullying is unacceptable. Encourage them to speak to an adult if this becomes the case.
- Not to spend too much time online, using a mobile phone, gaming console etc.
What can I do as a parent?
Good communication between a parent and child is critical. There are several steps that you can take as a parent to ensure that your child is staying safe online:
- Check the privacy policy of your child’s internet, mobile, social networking and games providers so that you understand what kind of information they collect and what they use it for.
- Encourage your child to only share their personal information with people or companies they know.
- Suggest that they use a nickname (not their real name) on websites, chat rooms and other online forums.
- Help them to set up strong passwords (a combination of letters, numbers and symbols) and explain why they shouldn’t share them with anyone.
- Make sure they use a PIN lock on their mobile.
- Discuss the fact that not everyone on the internet is who they say they are.
- Explain how information they use to register for websites, competitions, downloads and other internet and mobile services could be used by the companies in question (e.g. to send marketing emails).
- Advise your child to get permission from friends and family before taking photos or videos of them and to check that they’re happy for the images to be published – not everyone wants to be famous.
- Make sure you have up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your child’s computer and make the most of built-in tools like pop-up blockers and spam filters.
- Teach them the risks and dangers of sharing passwords, phone numbers, addresses and other personal information.
- Consider where you place your computer, and keep an eye on what your child is looking at.
- Be sure you have computer security software with parental controls.
- Encourage your children not to spend too much time online, using a mobile phone, gaming console etc. Encourage other activities and sports.
- Ask about your child’s online friends, and encourage them to have their “real” friends as their friends on social networking sites.
- If your child has an online profile, ask if you or a close relative can be an online friend (to help and support them).
