Online Safety

Online safety is an integral part of children’s education in today’s digital world and is embedded in their learning at school. We are also keen to support parents/carers to improve their own understanding of online safety issues, so you can engage with your children regarding their use of the internet while at home.

Reporting Urgent Online Safety Issues

We hope that you never have to use these, but these are the places you can go for help. Please also remember that in the case of illegal activity or content that needs to be dealt with urgently, the police should be called on 999 as well.

Grooming or other illegal behaviour:

If you want to report someone who is behaving suspiciously online towards a child, you should in an emergency contact the emergency services by calling 999, or otherwise make a report to CEOP, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre - see www.ceop.gov.uk.

Criminal content online:

Child sexual abuse images: If you stumble across criminal content online, you should report this to the Internet Watch Foundation at www.iwf.org.uk/report. Criminal content in the UK includes child sexual abuse images, criminally obscene adult content as well as non-photographic child sexual abuse images.

Online terrorism:

You can report terrorism-related content to the police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit at www.gov.uk/report-terrorism.

Hate speech:

Online content which incites hatred on the grounds of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender should be reported to True Vision at www.report-it.org.uk.

Advice and content above taken from http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/need-help.

And of course, please talk to us at the school so that we can help.

Using your camera and video recorder in school

Requirements for parents and carers who wish to photograph and/or video a Coldfall Primary School event. Photographs and videos of children taken for school and family use are a source of pleasure and pride and enhance children’s self-esteem. By following some simple requirements we can proceed safely and with regard to the law.

Remember that parents and carers attend Coldfall Primary school events at the invitation of the Head Teacher and Governors.
The Head Teacher and the Governors have the responsibility to decide if photography and videoing of school performances is permitted.
The Head Teacher and Governors have the responsibility to decide the conditions that will apply in order that children are kept safe and that performance is not disrupted and children and staff are not distracted.
Parents and carers can use photographs and videos taken at school events for their own personal use only. Such photographs and videos cannot be passed on or sold or put on the web/internet without consent. This includes social networking sites. If you fail to comply, you could be committing a breach of the Data Protection Act.
Recording or photographing other than for private use requires the consent of all other parents and carers whose children are included in the image, even if unintentionally in the background.
Parents and carers must follow guidance from staff as to when photography and videoing is permitted and where to stand in order to minimise disruption to the activity.
Parents and carers must not photograph or video children changing for performances for events.
Family and carers are the appropriate people to use a camera or video recorder at school events. To avoid embarrassment, please do not ask anyone else to take photographs or make recordings on your behalf.

What you can do at home

We understand that it can be so difficult for adults to know what to do for the best when it comes to online safety. It may seem as if the technology is going at such a rate that it is hard to keep on top of all the new things coming out.

The main thing to remember is that whatever app, website or game that becomes the new craze:

Stay vigilant to your child’s internet use, and have open conversations about what they like to do.
Remind them that the same social rules apply online as in real life, so be kind, polite, and wary of strangers.
Teach children about what the dangers are, and what they can do if they get worried.
Talk to older siblings about being considerate of their younger siblings' age when watching things online with them.
Don’t leave children alone with digital devices until you have shown them how to interact safely online and to tell you if something is wrong.
Make sure you use parental settings on all of your devices, and never let them play games with a PEGI rating too old for them.
Above all, don’t feel ashamed about not knowing about every new technological development. Ask other parents, and us at school if you are worried.

Parent Checklist for Online Safety at Home

Conversation Starters for You to Your Children

Conversation starter ideas (taken from childnet.com):

Ask your children to tell you about the sites they like to visit and what they enjoy doing online.
Ask them about how they stay safe online. What tips do they have for you, and where did they learn them? What is okay and not okay to share?
Ask them if they know where to go for help, where to find the safety advice, privacy settings and how to report or block on the services they use.
Encourage them to help. Perhaps they can show you how to do something better online or they might have a friend who would benefit from their help and support.
Think about how you use the internet as a family. What could you do to get more out of the internet together and further enjoy your lives online?

Conversation Starters for You to Your Children

Useful Resources

Smartie The Penguin

In Key Stage 1, children are learning about 'Smartie the Penguin'. He is a little penguin who loves the internet. He has very supportive adults around him who guide him through tricky decisions online. He even has a catchy song that the children have learnt to help them remember when they get stuck:

YouTube

Regular YouTube has 'Restricted Mode' that can be set by scrolling to the bottom of YouTube, clicking 'Restricted Mode' then clicking 'Save'. This will stop the majority of adult content being shown when the children watch. This is not fully reliable, however. For an added layer of protection for your mobiles and tablets download 'YouTube Kids', which allows content suitable for children. Please remember that no filter is 100% reliable, so you still need to be vigilant as to what your children are watching. Click HERE to find out how we talk to the children about that in school.

KidRex Search Engine

KidRex is a child-friendly alternative to Google Search. It doesn’t have an 'images' section so that those unexpected image results on innocent Google searches won’t be seen. It also filters out the majority of adult content. Again, it isn’t 100% foolproof and things will slip through. Just ensure you speak to your child about what to do if they see something upsetting or something they don’t understand. Click HERE to find out how we talk to the children about that in school.

Kiddle Picture Searches

Kiddle is a child-friendly picture search engine. Kidrex blocks picture searches, so to keep your child happy online, Kiddle is a good accompaniment. One of the tricky parts of the internet is when you are looking up pictures. Even with Google SafeSearch, there can be some dubious picture results! Although NO SAFE SEARCH is 100% safe, Kiddle does cut out a lot of the nasties. But please stay vigilant when your child is searching for pictures.

The videos below will tell you how to set up parental controls on Mac, PC and Android devices, as well as some games consoles.

Useful Websites for Further Reading

Here is a great website about Minecraft, and what you need to look out for from The Cyber Safety Lady. The video on this site is a great start to explaining what to look for, and the site goes into depth about the game and what to do for your children.

ThinkUKnow is a great website for children of all ages, and their parents. It is run by CEOP, Child Exploitation and Online Protection command, so they really know how to deal with the things we all worry about.

NSPCC

The NSPCC have a wealth of information for parents on keeping children safe. They also have a range of funny cartoons for parents explaining online dangers.

Childnet has a wealth of resources from videos to stories and activities to teach your child about staying safe online. The younger ones have already been introduced to Smartie the Penguin and the SMART crew!