E-Safety
Staying Safe Online
E-Safety is about staying safe online, something that is particularly important in our modern society. Here you will find some really useful information and links about how to ensure that you're doing your best to keep your children safe, and how they can keep themselves safe.
Information for Parents:
- Make sure your child understands what to do if they see or hear about something that makes them feel uncomfortable - telling an adult, and using block or report functions on individuals concerned.
- Be aware of what your child is accessing and, ideally, learn about it. Be aware that just because a site is safe doesn't necessarily mean that all the content on it is going to be appropriate for children.
- Use child friendly alternatives where possible. For instance, use Youtube Kids rather than Youtube.
- Set clear ground rules for your children - for instance, by having privacy settings set to high, rather than being viewable by everybody.
- Have an Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware scanner on your computer to prevent viruses and keylogging, which can compromise the privacy of both you and your children.
Information for Children:
- Social media - While I would personally recommend that you avoid this altogether (and you should not be using it until you are at least 13), you should never add people that you don't know or that you wouldn't want to see information about you - and your information should all be set to private.
- Think carefully before you speak/type. Writing is the same as talking - if you would not say it, don't type it. You can't take back something you've said, and more often than not, it will have been logged (saved - you can't say that you haven't said it!).
- Do not click on links in chats, particularly if they seem too good to be true (free gold, for example). These are often "phishing" scams (phishing means that they are trying to get you to put in account information into an unrelated site, which may be made to look like the actual site). They can also install bad software on your computer - if you accidentally click on one of those links, ask your parents to run a virus scan and do not put in any passwords. A lot of the time when people say they have been "hacked" and do not know how, they have actually been victims of phishing.
- Always check where links take you to. In most browsers, you can do that by hovering over the link with your mouse and looking at the bottom of your screen, just above the start bar. Look very carefully - some people are sneaky and just change one letter in a website name!
- Don't give out personal information such as your name, age, school or location. Don't lie about the details either - just report and ignore.
- Be aware that you don't know who you are talking to if you have not met them - they are a stranger.
- If you are worried about something you have heard or seen, then tell an adult that you trust - parent or guardian, another family member, one of our school staff. We can give you advice and sort it out.
- Always use strong passwords for accounts. Ideally your passwords should include a capital letter, a symbol, and a number as well as letters, and it should be memorable for you. This password should not be written down anywhere, and should not be something that anybody can guess.
During Computing lessons, we also focus on teaching the children about how to keep themselves safe online, and what to do if they have any concerns.
Useful Links: