Safer Internet Day 2018 will be celebrated globally on Tuesday 6th February 2018 with the slogan ‘Create, Connect and Share Respect: A better internet starts with you”.
As a school, we regularly touch on the subject of online safety, through our PSHE programme involving form tutor led activities as well as bringing in external visitors such as the police and other organisations to help deliver the strong message of being save online. It is now a common day practice, for students to access online material whether this is browsing social network sites, carrying out school work or just simply catching up on the news or weather.
We all have a role to play, both as a school and as parents’ in promoting the safe use of the internet, as you will be all well aware issues surrounding the dangers of the internet are never too far away with the local, national and worldwide news.
How can you keep your children safe online?
The NSPCC advise parents to sit down with your children, and set strict rules about what they should and shouldn’t be doing.
These could include limiting the amount of time they spend online, and which sites they are allowed to access.
You can also set up parental controls, to prevent them from downloading certain apps – the government working with Internet Service Providers such as TalkTalk, BT and Sky, have stipulated that all new internet connections must have the safe search filter enabled as default.
Net Aware, in partnership with the NSPCC and O2, has reviewed dozens of popular apps and websites such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp etc. Most of these sites have a designated minimum age for example the use of Whatsapp, should not be used under the age of 13.
For more information, please see https://www.net-aware.org.uk/