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E-Safety

At Harpenden Academy, we are committed to ensure our children are equipped with all that they need to know to be able to keep safe online. We use Education for a connected world document, which is a framework to equip young people and children for a digital life from the UK Council for Child Internet Safety.

Today’s children and young people are growing up in a digital world. As they grow older, it is crucial that they learn to balance the benefits offered by technology with a critical awareness of their own and other’s online behaviour, and develop effective strategies for staying safe and making a positive contribution online.

The framework describes the skills and understanding that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages. It highlights what a child should know in terms of current online technology, its influence on behaviour and development, and what skills they need to be able to navigate it safely. .

The framework focuses specifically on eight different aspects of online education:

1. Self-image and Identity

2. Online relationships

3. Online reputation

4. Online bullying

5. Managing online information

6. Health, wellbeing and lifestyle

7. Privacy and security

8. Copyright and ownership

At Harpenden Academy, we teach each of these aspects throughout the academic year alongside our computing curriculum. At the start of each computing unit, the children have an e-safety lesson that covers an aspect of online education that will link with their upcoming computing unit.

Information about online safety issues and how to ‘Stay Safe’ can be found on the websites below. This is just a sample of websites that can provide parents with support and information. Once parents and carers have the background knowledge and understanding of eSafety they can decide what is right for their family.

National Online Safety - Parent Guides to ensure safety of children on the internet
Facebook Magic 13 - Why do you have to be 13 to use Facebook?
Herts E-Safety - Mind the gap!
Internet Safety - Parents Guide
NSPCC - Help keep your children safe online!
CEOP - News and articles around internet safety
Think U Know - Great advice to keep children safe whilst using the internet
KnowITAll - Award-winning resources for teachers and parents.
Webwise - The BBC Webwise is a beginner’s guide to using the internet. There is a good section on children’s online safety.
Internet Matters - This website contains lots of information about staying safe online, with tips about games, social networking, mobile technology and more.
Get Safe Online - A beginners guide to using the Internet safely, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to ‘stay safe’ on-line.
Kidsmart - Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to ‘stay safe’ online.
Childnet - A non-profit making organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children’s safe and positive use of the internet are addressed. Childnet International produce an online CD guide specifically for parents.

Top Tips for when online

The internet and related technologies, including mobile phones, games consoles and social networks are becoming increasingly important in the daily lives of our children and have many positive benefits. They can be used both educationally and socially and are becoming part of a child’s identity. Socially our children often use the internet for entertainment, interaction, and communication with ‘friends’. Access to the internet can take place anywhere and at anytime so we need to make sure our children are able to use the internet safely.

Many children are unaware of the risks for example by having many online friends (who could be strangers), uploading inappropriate images, viewing unsuitable content or sharing too much personal information.

Talk together and have fun learning together.
Keep virus and firewall software up to-date.
Remember that passwords should be kept private and not shared with others. Many eSafety incidents relate back to the sharing of passwords.
Involve everyone and agree your family guidelines and rules. Remember that sometimes what is acceptable for a Year 10 child is not necessarily acceptable for a Year 4 child.
Regularly discuss online safety and go online with your children. Communication is the key to ‘staying safe’ online.
Enable your ‘browser safe’ search option and/ or consider using internet filtering software, walled gardens and child-friendly search engines. Critically view all content as some websites are not what they appear.
Keep the computer in a communal area of the house, where it's easier to monitor what your children are viewing. Do not let children have webcams, or similar, in their bedroom. Remember any image, sound or text can be copied and viewed by everyone.
Talk to your children about why they should not to give out their personal details. If they want to subscribe to any online service then make up a family email address to receive the mail.
We all love to chat and children are no different. Encourage your children to use moderated chat rooms and never to meet up with an online ‘friend’ without first telling you.
Time spent online should be monitored to help prevent obsessive use of the internet. Children need to follow a range of activities many of which will be offline.
Encourage your children, and in fact all family members, to tell you if they feel uncomfortable, upset or threatened by anything they see online.
Have proportionate responses if the family guidelines are not followed.

An introduction to child safety online

Online safety for children is a concern for all parents. Guru Andrew speaks to the NSPCC's Claire Lilley about the importance of online security for children and what you can do to make sure your child's life online is protected.