How can you protect your child online?
Simply put, 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. Below you will find a list of some websites you can visit to find out more.
We encourage parents to maintain active discussions with their children around eSafety, put filtering in place at home and to impose sensible time limits on the use of devices at home. In school, we have a very clear internet safety policy and each year all students are educated how to stay safe online.
For those parents who are concerned about their children’s safety or the internet, the following sites provide useful advice:
- thinkuknow.co.uk– a site run by CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre) with up to date information for children of different ages and parents.
- http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-to-technology– A guide to answer questions and introduce some of the most popular communication devices, highlighting the safety tools available and empowering parents with the knowledge they need to support their children to use these technologies safely and responsibly.
- http://www.swgfl.org.uk/safe– provides online safety advice for parents, children and schools.
- http://www.chatdanger.com– offers information related to potential danger using chat related services both on computers and mobile phones.
There are also a number of useful materials attached below that will give further guidance.
Reporting incidents to the School
Almost all cyberbullying incidents take place outside of school hours. We explain to students that their online conduct outside hours still needs to meet the high standards of behaviour we would expect in school and all reports of cyberbullying will be investigated and taken seriously.
If you need to report an incident, please contact your child’s form teacher or Head of Year in the first instance. We are here to support you and we will do whatever we can to help and keep students safe. If the incident occurs outside of our jurisdiction, it may be necessary for us to advise you to call the police non-emergency number (101).
The following documents relating to online safety may be useful for parents and carers: