At Kessingland Church of England Primary Academy, we believe it is crucial that children have the opportunity to develop their understanding of online safety and know how to behave when on the internet. Online safety is taught in all classes regularly.
- 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 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 keep communication open for a child to know that it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.
Social Media APPs
Social media apps are constantly being developed that can change lives considerably, many for the better, but there are also some that can have a negative impact on children’s wellbeing. It will be an on-going challenge to stay ahead of these apps but we will endeavour to keep you informed when we think children are at risk.
Several specific apps have been brought to our attention lately; some you’ll likely be aware of, such as YouTube, and some you may not be, and whilst your child may not even be aware of them yet, we know they are widely used by children and young people. To help you get an overview of these apps, we’ve prepared some information about them.
Useful websites with up to date information linked to online safety:
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/
https://parentinfo.org/articles/all
