Digital Citizenship (Online Safety)

The internet is an amazing resource which enables us to connect, communicate and be creative on an ever increasing range of devices. However, you may sometimes feel that your children have better technical skills and understanding than you do! Despite this, our children still need advice and protection when it comes to managing their digital selves.

There are four main categories of  issues that children may encounter on the internet (depending on their age and online activities).

Conduct:

Children need to be aware of the impact of their online activities – DIGITAL FOOTPRINT.

It’s easy to feel anonymous online but it’s important that children are made aware of who is potentially able to view, edit and share the information they post. It’s also important to keep personal information safe and not share it with strangers.

Please encourage open discussions with your child about the importance of reporting inappropriate conversations, messages, images and behaviours.

Content:

Some online content is not suitable for children and can be hurtful or harmful. This is true for content accessed and viewed via:

  • social networking
  • online games
  • blogs
  • websites
  • apps

It’s also important for children to consider the reliability of online material and be aware that it might not be true or written with a bias. Children may need your help as they begin to assess content in this way. There can be legal consequences for using or downloading copyrighted content, without seeking the author’s permission

Contact:

It is important to realise that new friends made online may not be who they say they are and that once a friend is added to an account, they could be sharing your personal information. To minimise the risk of this happening try to:

  • Regularly reviewing friends lists and removing unwanted contacts
  • Ensure privacy settings are  customised to restrict the information that each friend is able to access

If you have concerns about a child being the subject of inappropriate sexual contact or approach by another person, it’s vital that you report it to the police via the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (www.ceop.police.uk).

If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, this can also be reported either online and offline. Please reinforce with your child the importance of telling a trusted adult straight away if someone is bullying them or making them feel uncomfortable, or if one of their friends is being bullied online.

Commercialism:

Young people’s privacy and enjoyment online can sometimes be affected by advertising and marketing schemes, which can
also mean inadvertently spending money within applications.

Please encourage your child(ren) to keep their personal information private, learn how to block both pop ups and spam emails, turn off in-app purchasing on devices where possible, and use a family e-mail address.

St James Online Safety Overview

Online Safety Overview 2016-17

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