Monday 7th Feb marked the start of Safer Internet Day. We held several events last week to raise awareness of how to stay safe online, be aware of the dangers and provide information to enable students and parents to be involved in a range of activities.
The global theme this year is ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’.
However we believe that Children’s education on using the internet safely should be ongoing and we would encourage parents to continue this very important conversation at home.
To help you with this you may be interested in downloading the free Safer Internet Day Resource pack for parents and carers which is available here: Advice for parents and carers - UK Safer Internet Centre
There are also top tips, a quiz and films which you can use at home with your child. Some other resources you may also find helpful in supporting your child online are:
● Advice for parents and carers from Parents and Carers - UK Safer Internet Centre
● Guides on popular apps and games from Keeping children safe online | NSPCC
● Help on using parental controls and privacy settings from Information, Advice and Support to Keep
Children Safe Online (internetmatters.org)
There is lots of great guidance and advice from child.net on Gaming | Childnet moving up to secondary school Moving on up! | Childnet and many other topics such as digital wellbeing Digital wellbeing | Childnet
The Department for Education have provided a specific focus this year on raising the awareness of online Sexual Harassment. They have produced a new guide for parents on talking about online sexual harassment The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has recently published a new guide for parents cco_talking_to_your_child_about_online_sexual_harassment_a-guide_for_parents_dec_2021.pdf (childrenscommissioner.gov.uk) on how to talk to children about online sexual harassment.
The guide includes tips from young people about how parents can open up earlier conversations about sexual harassment, nudes, sexualised bullying, photo editing, body image and peer pressure. A list of helpful organizations is also provided for further help and support.
Although the number of resources seem overwhelming they cover a wide range of advice points which your child may need support with now or may need in future, these resources aim to:
- Advise positive strategies to monitor your child/keep your child safe
- Ensure you are aware of the dangers of new online apps, games etc
- Provide proactive strategies to implement at home
In addition to this, students studied and discussed how to stay safe on the internet with age-appropriate activities in, Form Times and PSCHE lessons and will continue with this throughout the coming weeks.
The whole school Inter House competition this year was to design a ‘Safer internet song/rap’ which can be submitted in written form or recorded as a clip to Ms Chessum our Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Online awareness and skills take time to develop but they can help us in all areas of life - online and off. We encourage you as parents to help us support our young people in developing the key critical skills essential in staying safe, the 4 R’s;
- Respect - I treat myself and others the way I like to be treated
- Responsibility - I am accountable for my actions and I take a stand when I feel something is wrong
- Reasoning - I question what is real
- Resilience - I get back up from tough situations
Online safety is an important issue which as a School we are committed to teaching our young people about.
Especially as we are having to rely on the internet more than ever during Virtual Webber!
If you have any concerns or questions about keeping your child safe online, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher, Form Tutor or myself the Designated Safeguarding Lead here at Webber.
m.chessum@webberindependentschool.co.uk
Ms Chessum
Safeguarding Lead