Online Safety
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Mobile Phone use
Over recent years we have noticed phones are being given to younger children, and often before they have the maturity or skills to manage the online world properly. Whilst we know there are many benefits to technology we have encountered issues with inappropriate tech use recently and wanted to use these experiences to give some advice:
- Children will be ready to have a phone at different times to their peers. Try not to get drawn into peer pressure. When the children say EVERYONE has one this is rarely the case (often a child might have an old phone that just has a few games, but they tell their friends they have a phone). Do it when you feel YOUR child is ready to cope with having their own phone, the responsibility to look after it and the maturity to cope with the online world.
- It is important to teach your child how to use their phone safely with and understanding of privacy, online security, social media and messaging etiquette. View in the same way as teaching them to ride a bike. You might start them on a balance bike or stabilisers. You might run alongside them or hold onto the back of the seat. As their parents you support, guide and give them advice to help them learn the skills to do it alone. Teaching a child to navigate the online world should be done in the same way, supported, gradual steps and then stepping back but always being there to help if things go wrong.
- Encourage your child to develop healthy tech use habits from an early age i.e. limiting screen time and not having their phone in their rooms overnight (we have had issues with children feeling really tired in school due to late night secret phone use).
- Ensure you have oversight of what your child's doing on their phone. This is best done with them rather than behind their backs and in a sneaky way. Make this a condition of having a phone.
- Familiarise yourself with any apps they have and understand the security and privacy settings. Make sure you know if there is any form of communicating with others through the apps.
- Check the age rating of any apps they use (for example What's app has an age restriction of 16 years old in the UK).
- If they do use messaging apps they need help with this and regular monitoring. this is often the source of most upset an conflict. Children need to understand that what they type could be shared with others i.e. messages forwarded on. They need to know how to leave a group, how to block numbers and what to do if someone sends them an inappropriate message or images.
- Talk to your child about privacy i.e. the importance of not sharing their friends numbers without permission and not sending photos of themselves or other people that might not be appropriate.
- If your child walks to school by themselves and has a mobile phone for safety this can come into school, but phones MUST remain in bags throughout the school day. Phones come into school at their owners risk and we cannot take responsibility for them.
Online Safety
Online Safety is an important part of keeping children safe. Any online Safety incidents in school are recorded and managed in accordance with our Online Safety Policy. Online Safety is taught in all year groups using the principles in the government 'Education in a connected world' document and using resources from Project Evolve. This focuses on educating children about three key areas: content, conduct and contact.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the Online Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.
We hope that the following parent guides from National Online Safety are useful in supporting you to keep your children safe online when at home. Please let us know if there is an area of online safety you would like support and advice in, and we will source the information for you.