Online Safety
Introduction
The children’s internet safety is taken very seriously at Holy Family. Alongside our computing lessons, we teach an Internet Safety curriculum to the children. The focus of our Internet Safety lessons is to make sure children realise the importance of keeping themselves safe online and provide them with the skills to do so.
At home, sometimes children can be given unsupervised access to the Internet. This, potentially, allows them to access all kinds of society (both good and bad) and bring them virtually into their homes.
With the introduction of Purple Mash, our children are using the Internet on a regular basis as part of their learning. Here are some tips and useful links to help you to keep your children safe online:
- Personal School Email Addresses – Every child has their own school email address and password which is unique to them. Through these personal emails children are given the opportunity to share work, ideas and use social media with their teachers and peers with maximum security.
- Explore internet safety sites together – Below you will find year group appropriate links to the Internet Safety sites we use with our children during the year. Please take the time to look at them yourselves and discuss Internet Safety with your child.
- Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/Oovoo – Many of these sites have a minimum age limit of 13, so our pupils should NOT be using them.
- Keep your computer in a shared area – Talk to your child about what they are doing online and, if possible, set up your computer in a shared area at home so that you can all share in the wonderful sites that are available online.
For more information, also see our Computer/Internet Acceptable Use Policies.
Useful Websites
- BBC Own It – a place to help you boss your life online.
- Childnet International – for primary children.
- Childnet International – for teachers and professionals.
- Facebook Safety Centre – guides to Facebook settings.
- Internet Matters – a guide to help you through the many issues children can experience when using the internet.
- Internet Watch Foundation – the UK Hotline for reporting criminal online content.
- NSPCC: Keeping Children Safe Online – support for parents and carers from the NSPCC.
- Report Online Terrorist Material (gov.uk) – report illegal terrorist information, pictures or videos you’ve found on the internet. Your report will be treated anonymously.
- ThinkUKnow – learning resource for children.
- UK Safer Internet Centre: Parental Controls – how to set up parental controls offered by your home ISP.
Useful Documents
- A Parents’ Guide to Among Us
- A Parents’ Guide to FIFA 2021
- A Parents’ Guide to Games Consoles
- A Parents’ Guide to Tik Tok
- A Parents’ Guide to WhatsApp
- Child Safety Online: A Guide on Social Media
- How to Tackle Cyber Bullying
- Information and Online Resources (UK Safer Internet Centre)
- Online Safety Tips for Children with New Devices
- Really Useful Safety Organisations
- Supporting Young People Online (Childnet)