20th December
Staying Safe Online
Online communication through various devices including smartphones, iPhones, iPods, iPads, Tablets, Games Consoles (i.e. Xbox or Playstation), Macs, and PCs is now embedded into the daily lives of most young people. Are you aware of the benefits and dangers and how to tell whether your child is using the technology safely?
Communication tools can be used in amazing ways to assist your child’s learning, from FaceTime or Skype chats over Maths homework to iMessage to remind a student about an appointment. Unfortunately, as with conversations in playgrounds and in town, some students will use the opportunity to discuss inappropriate topics or to bully other students. With photos and videos, this has now extended to sharing images that can, unfortunately, result in offensive or even illegal actions. Do you look at your child’s messaging programs to see what they are sharing?
Digital Footprint
Every time your child goes online, they leave a trail of information about themselves and their activity. This contributes to their overall online reputation and becomes their Digital Footprint! When this information is positive its great, but when not it can be disastrous.
Before sharing content using social media, messaging, texting etc. they should think of the following:
- Would they feel comfortable if this was hung on a billboard in the middle of town for all to see with their name on it?
- Does the message take into account others feelings? How would they feel if this was about them?
- Would they want this information linked to their name when they start college/university/work? Could it affect them having the career they want?
Read more about how you can help your child have a positive Digital Footprint at ParentINFO.
Surfing the web safely
Most modern web browsers (Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer) now have a ‘private browsing’ mode. Whilst this might be useful for protecting your web use if, for example, researching a surprise birthday gift, it is also used by people to try and hide their internet history. If your child is using ‘private browsing’, ask them why. If their internet browsing history is blank, what are they trying to hide? If you want to protect your whole house, speak to your Internet Service Provider about using Family Safe settings on your Broadband Router. OpenDNS offer a free service for families to monitor web use on their computers. The ideal place at home for an internet-connected laptop, tablet or desktop is in a communal area such as a family room where there will be some level of supervision. Smartphones and other internet-connected devices should not be left in bedrooms overnight, when their unsupervised use can lead to problems.
Cyberbullying
Cyber bullying is when a person or a group of people uses the internet, mobile phones, online games or any other kind of digital technology to threaten, tease, upset or humiliate someone else (definition from ChildLine: Cyberbullying is just as harmful as bullying in the real world and may, in some cases, result in prosecution by the Police. Those who take part in online bullying often use a group of friends to target their victims by asking them to add a comment to a photo on a blog, or asking them to forward it onto another group of friends.)
Types of Cyberbullying
There are lots of different types of cyberbullying. These are the main ones:
Email:
Sending emails that can be threatening or upsetting to a single target, or to a group of people to encourage them to become part of the bullying. These messages or ‘hate mails’ can include examples of racism, sexism and other types of prejudice.
Instant messenger and chatrooms:
Sending instant messenger and chatroom messages to friends or direct to a victim. Others can be invited into the bullying conversation, who then become part of it by laughing.
Social networking sites:
Setting up profiles on social networking sites to make fun of someone. By visiting these pages or contributing to them, students can become part of the problem.
Mobile phone:
Sending humiliating and abusive text or video messages, as well as photo messages and phone calls over a mobile phone.
Abusing personal information:
Many victims of cyberbullying have complained that they have seen personal photos, emails or blog postings posted where others could see them without their permission. Social networking sites make it a lot easier for web users to get hold of personal information and photos of people. They can also get hold of someone else’s messaging accounts and chat to people pretending to be the victim.
The effects of cyberbullying:
Even though cyberbullying cannot physically hurt students, it can still leave them feeling mentally vulnerable and very upset. Students can also feel scared, lonely and stressed and that there’s no way out.
How to deal with cyberbullying:
If a student or someone a student knows is being cyber bullied, they must report it to the school. It is important to put a stop to it before it gets any worse. No matter how careful the bully is to cover their tracks, the police can track digital fingerprints down to an individual computer or mobile phone. Contacting the mobile operator or the Instant messenger or social network service provider to report what has happened can also be a useful step. If a student receives offensive comments they can print them out and make a complaint to the police. Students must avoid abusive phone calls by only answering calls from the numbers they know.
E-Safety Policy
Download the Student Acceptable Use Policy
Useful websites for Online Safety Information
Child Exploitation and Online Protection website
Family Online Safety Institute - Good Digital Parenting
UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCISS)
UKCISS has launched two new guides to support parents and carers in the area of online safety (e-safety). Both guides focus on children using social media and apps. They can be found below
Our Pact
OurPact is a leading parental control app for iPhones, iPads, and iPods that makes it easy for you to set limits on how much time your children are spending on their mobile devices. Create schedules, block all Internet and app use at a moment’s notice or reward them with the allowance feature.
Zipit
Zipit is ChildLines's first ever App, available for Android, Apple and Blackberry smartphones.
