Online Safety
How to keep safe online
Just like in real life, children need our help to stay safe online. Teach your child to be #ShareAware with @NSPCC and @O2 by clicking this link.
Understanding and setting parental controls on devices
Parenting in the digital world
The technology children use every day can seem a bit daunting and you might worry about the risks your child can face online - such as bullying, contact from strangers or the possibility of them seeing illegal or inappropriate content.
You can download a simple checklist here that may help you start to protect your children online and decrease the risks they face. Or you can engage with your children regarding their use of the internet while at home. Here are some conversation starter ideas from www.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 OK and not OK 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.
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Web Links for Parents and Carers
Parental Controls
It is advisable to look at the website of your broadband provider or contact them as many of the large providers have restrictions and controls that you can put in place to restrict your child’s use of the internet in your home. You can also action restrictions on individual devices.
Internet Explorer does have parental/family settings. Please follow instructions below to set parental controls:
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select “Tools” from the toolbar
- Select “Internet Options”
- Choose the “Content” tab
- Click “Enable”
- Adjust the slider to select the level you deem appropriate for your child
- Save changes
Firefox has an add-on called ‘Fox Filter’ which can be applied.
E-Safety
We take the safety of our pupils in all aspects of their life very seriously. Within that remit we are committed to educating our young people to be safe internet users and in supporting parents with this very important skill at home too.
In school we have an internet safety code of conduct that all pupils and staff are expected to adhere too. We have strong and constantly updated filters in place to protect and govern internet use. All computers are enabled with the dolphin facility. The dolphin floats on all out computer screens all the time and if the children see something that they are afraid of, unsure or or feel is inappropriate they can click on the dolphin which will fill the screen with a pleasant picture and enable them to alert a teacher.
Our children are constantly encouraged to use modern technology to support their learning; therefore, we teach them to be safe and expect them to follow the rules below to protect themselves and their friends.
- I will ask permission from a member of staff before using the internet;
- I will only use my login and password, which I will keep secret;
- I will not access other peoples files;
- I will use the computers only for school work and homework;
- I will not bring disks into school unless I have permission;
- I will only e-mail people I know, or my teacher has approved;
- The messages I send will be polite and sensible;
- I will not give my home address or phone number, or arrange to meet someone, unless my parent, carer or teacher has given permission;
- To help other pupils and myself, I will tell a teacher if I see anything I feel is inappropriate or I receive messages I do not like;
- I understand that the school may check my computer files and may monitor the Internet sites I visit.