Online Safety

The online world is posing an ever-increasing risk to children, and it is important that schools, parents and carers work together to take an active role in teaching children about online dangers. Learning how to act safely when using the internet is an incredibly important part of safeguarding our children.

The website below offers parents a wealth of information including safety settings for your child’s devices and apps, guidance on how to tackle online issues children may face and how to report harmful content.

Keep Children Safe Online: Information, Advice, Support – Internet Matters

The 5 P’s

The internet is a huge part of everyday life! You probably feel like you couldn’t live without it! These tips will help you stay safe online and protect you from harm.

Passwords are there to protect your information. They must be strong including letters, numbers and symbols that can’t be guessed. Do not share them with other people, change them regularly and do not use the same passwords for every account.

Use the privacy settings on social media and apps to control who sees what information about you or your location. You should only allow people you know in real life to view your information.

Be careful not to give out personal information like your name, email, phone number, address or the name of your school to people you don’t know. You should ensure this information is not visible to everyone.

Make sure someone can’t work out too much about you from the information you include in your profile or bio or by looking at the background of your profile pic. Be aware that anything you post could be saved or shared by people in your friends list.

A padlock symbol in the browser address bar means a website is secure. Before you enter private information like payment or address details check it’s there. If it’s not, don’t use the site.

The ‘Big 4’

The ‘Big 4’ at the moment for pupils aged 11-16 are Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Whatsapp. Please click on the image below to read the important information.

Guides to keeping your child safe online, on various internet, gaming or social media platforms.

Other online guidance websites for parents/carers

Parents & carers | Childnet – Informative Guides for keeping your Child safe online.
CEOP Safety Centre – Child Exploitation and Online Protection website.
Internet Safety for Kids | O2 – A range of resources designed by O2 to help parents and carers support their children with online safety issues.

Specialist guidance for parents/carers of children with SEND

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-families-children-with-send/ – NSPCC have partnered with Ambitious about Autism to bring online safety tips