LyndhurstOnline Safety
Online safety is a paramount concern for families in today's digital age. As our children navigate the vast landscape of the internet, it's crucial for parents to play an active role in safeguarding their online experiences.
This involves fostering open and honest communication with our children about the potential risks and dangers they may encounter online, such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content, or online predators.
Parents should also teach their children about responsible online behaviour, emphasizing the importance of privacy settings, strong passwords, and the potential consequences of sharing personal information.
Monitoring their online activities without invading their privacy is essential, striking a balance between trust and vigilance. By staying informed about the latest online trends and technologies, parents can equip themselves to guide their children towards safer and more enriching online experiences, ultimately helping them develop the digital literacy and resilience needed to thrive in the online world.
We regularly share #wakeupwednesdayguide on Class Dojo or Social Media.
Tik Tok app guidance
The UK Safer Internet Centre has published guidance on using the social networking app Tik Tok. The app allows users to record, create and upload videos of themselves lip-syncing to songs and audio clips. Guidance includes: how to enable privacy settings; using parental controls in the app; age requirements for using Tik Tok; how to report inappropriate or offensive content and functionality to be aware of.
Source: UK Safer Internet Centre
Read more on NSPCC Learning: Protecting children from online abuse
Child protection in sport: information for parents
The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) has launched a series of podcasts to share safeguarding guidance and best practice.
Source: CPSU Date: 05 October 2018
Further information: Child Protection in Sport Unit (podcasts)
Online safety
Childnet International has produced guidance for parents and carers on looking after the digital wellbeing of children and young people. This includes having an awareness of how being online can make children and young people feel, and how they can look after themselves and others when online. The guidance includes: age specific information about how children and young people are interacting with the internet; top tips to support young people at this age; and ideas to help start a conversation about digital wellbeing.
Advice for helping children set up a new profile
The UK Safer Internet Centre shares advice for parents and carers when helping their child set up a profile on a new site or game. Key points include: using a family email address; not using personal information (full name or date of birth) in a username; and making sure that profile pictures don’t include personal information clues such as school uniforms and house or street names.
Online safety conversation “icebreakers”
O2, as part of its partnership with the NSPCC to help all children and families in the UK stay safe together online, has created a series of weekly emails for parents and carers to help them start a conversation with their children about online safety.
Body positivity
Voice box, Childline’s weekly video chat, features Grace Victory who gives advice to young people on how to stay body positive.
Useful websites
CEOP
The NCA’s CEOP Command (formerly the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) works with child protection partners across the UK and overseas to identify the main threats to children and coordinates activity against these threats to bring offenders to account. We protect children from harm online and offline, directly through NCA led operations and in partnership with local and international agencies.
NSPCC
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/share-aware/
Online safety
The NSPCC and O2 have launched a campaign to illustrate how innocentsearches online can lead to not so innocent results. Highlights how using parental controls to block or filter content can help keep children safe online and includes information onhow to set up parental controls on mobiles and tablets, home computers, searchengines and games consoles.
Eating disorders summit: rapid early intervention and developing a gold standard service
This conference organised by Healthcare Conferences UK (HC-UK) takes place on 16 January 2017 in London. A 20% discount is available by quoting ref: HCUK20SNWK when booking (this cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer; terms and conditions are available upon request.)
Children’s engagement with the internet and social media
The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report looking into how well children are prepared to engage withthe internet. Findings include: opaque and lengthy social media terms andconditions mean children unknowingly waive privacy rights; a Mumsnet survey of nearly 900 parents of children aged 2-18 showed that 73% were concerned about theirchildren accessing inappropriate material online, 49% were worried about theirchild oversharing personal information, and 41% felt they needed more advice to make informed decisions about their children’s online use. Recommendationsinclude: a champion for children’s rights online is needed to enforce theirrights with social media companies; an obligatory digital citizenship programmefor 4 to 14 year-olds should be set up.