At our School, we take children’s internet safety very seriously. We believe the internet provides us with a rich and diverse resource, but it must be treated responsilbly and with great care.
Children need to learn how to keep safe whilst using the Internet, understand the responsibilty of becoming digitally active and how to access help should they need it.
Our pledge to continue to support online safety is ongoing. We would like to urge all parents and carers to work with us to protect children when interacting online.The NSPCC website offers a really helpful and wide range of guidance in terms of keeping our children safe online. This includes age ratings of 13 recommended for accessing Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Tik Tok, Twitter and Wink. The age rating for What’s App is 16. We are aware some of the children who attend school do access these Social Media Platforms and we would urge you to refer to the advice on the NSPCC website to support consistent awareness of the risks posed to children whilst interacting online. This includes, oversharing, sharing their location, talking to people they do not know, sending or receiving inappropriate content, unrealistic sense of body image or reality and obsessive focus on likes and comments. It is vital we encourage our children to keep talking to us by taking time out for one to one time to catch up on how their day has been and giving them opportunity to share any worries they may have. In the event school are made aware of any inappropriate or upsetting social media interactions, this will be shared with parents / carers to support our safeguarding policy and promote best and safe outcomes for the children.
Children using ‘chat apps’ such as What’s App, Kik and Telegram can be seen as a positive way for children to keep in touch with their friends. However, it is really important we ensure our children are protected if using and accessing social media and chat apps, this can be successful by exploring privacy settings to help restrict who can contact them.
Please access the links below to be informed of effective guidance and support raising awareness in relation to online safety. We cannot assume children are able to successfully and appropriately manage their behaviours and responses whilst interacting online; a robust approach is so important to ensure children are protected as much as possible. In addition, it is critical we are reminded of the risks posed by online predator activity. Online grooming crimes have risen by more than 80% in four years, offenders target children through well-established grooming pathways, such as contacting children on social media and gaming sites and coercing them to produce self-generated child abuse images, engage in inappropriate chats and agree to meet up. We can work together to achieve safer outcomes for our children.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/social-media/chat-apps/
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2022/online-grooming-crimes-rise/
The Family Link App supports parents to monitor their child’s devices in terms of usage, blocking and approving Apps, setting screen time limits and supervising content they have access to. Please see the link below to inform you of the effective ways children can be kept safe when accessing social media content, interacting with others and when gaming.
