Online Safety

At Sevenoaks Primary School we know from first-hand experience that the Internet can be a powerful way to enhance and broaden a child’s education. The teaching and learning in every subject in the curriculum can make good use of web-based material.

However, we also know that the Internet allows access to a great deal of entertainment, information and communication which is not related to school-based learning and that children, being naturally curious, will want to explore and investigate.

Remember that children can and do access the internet without using a traditional computer – smart-phones, games consoles and an increasing range of other devices allow children to get online. This exploration is not necessarily harmful but if unsupervised and unmonitored can result in them encountering inappropriate material or unknown people which can upset or confuse them or worse.

As a school we recommend that Key Stage 1 and 2 children should always have a responsible adult with them when online.

Keeping children completely isolated from the Internet may be tempting but in the long term they will all need to understand the web and how they can use it positively, safely and to their benefit. As your child’s parent or carer you are in a strong position to help them learn how to avoid potential problems and get the most out of the web. This is a long-term project with a lot to cover. With this in mind we have collected a range of resources to help you develop your child’s understanding, skill and confidence. We recommend that you have a good look around each site on your own first in order to focus on issues which may be of particular relevance.

Happy surfing!

The Legends Family Adventure
Google and Parent Zone's new animated series – is perfect for families to watch together. It's part of the Be Internet Legends programme — helping children to be safer and more confident online.

The Legends Family Adventure game from Google and Parent Zone will help you all become Internet Legends – and have fun along the way! 
When Lumen’s bear goes missing, the whole family must brave Interland to get it back. Along the way, the family learns lessons from the Legends Code — including helpful tips on what to do with cyberbullies, how to spot scams and set strong passwords, as well as important lessons on kindness. And, Lumen discovers they're stronger and braver than they ever thought they could be.
Embark on this adventure as a family by visiting Join The Legends Family Adventure — Parent Zone – Parents' area

Parent Resources

Thinkuknow - https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk a variety of online resources to help children from 5 to 16+ explore a range of issues they may encounter in the digital world. They also have a dedicated parent resources design to help you as you support your young person to navigate the online world.

South West Grid For Learning - Resources for Parents | SWGfL We are a charity dedicated to empowering the safe and secure use of technology through innovative services, tools, content and policy, nationally and globally. With resources to support safe use of Apps, gaming platforms, technology controls, screen limits and much much more, a great place to start is their 10 Top Tips!

NSPCC Online Safety help online Resources for a Parents, Carers and Young People with helpful tips, advice and activities. Previously known as Net Aware   which produced simple guides to social networks, sites and apps children use, based on parents’ experiences and the views of young people.  Over 750 reviews from an O2/NSPCC parent panel and over 1720 young people reviewed 50 platforms against criteria such as reporting mechanisms, privacy and prevalence of inappropriate content.

Internet Matters - At Internet Matters, parents can find the most comprehensive and credible resources, information and support to keep children safe online.
From age-specific online safety checklists to guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, you’ll find a host of practical tips to help children get the most out of their digital world. The IM helpful guides to agreeing and setting screen limits are great! They also have a really useful guide to Social Networking and Messaging apps including age limits and reviews of the platforms.
Practical ways to support children on screen time

Common Sense Media: Age-Based Media Reviews for Families - Our kids are on the front lines of a digital revolution. Devices, social networks, and media are changing childhood in radical ways. We all want kids to grow up healthy and happy as the world accelerates around them. Common Sense has helped hundreds of millions of parents, teachers, and policymakers navigate this accelerating landscape. Today, our mission to ensure kids' digital well-being is more relevant and vital than ever and to empower families with the information they need to be advocates for their children.

 

 Online Gaming Safety
 Social Media Networks

Virgin Media O2 have put together A Children’s Internet Safety Test to help parents and carers test their knowledge of their children's online world and keep on top of how our little ones are making use of the world wide web. Sharing resources and tips to help make sure internet users of all ages  enjoy all the wonderful things the web has to offer, safely.

http://parents.vodafone.com/  Vodafone’s site is designed to help parents and carers develop an understanding of their child’s Internet use.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/ Includes an ‘Internet for Beginners’ course and a tool for answering your Internet related questions.

http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/  Arms children with the SMART rules for safe Internet use and lots more besides.

https://parentzone.org.uk/latest/reviews  Parent Zone will test anything from gadgets to apps to the parental controls on online video streaming services, to see how family-friendly they are, please find their reviews here. 

Reporting

https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/  The government’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) - We help children stay safe online. Has someone acted inappropriately towards you online, or to a child or young person you know? It may be sexual chat, being asked to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or someone being insistent on meeting up. You can report it to us.

The RHC button is an asset of SWGfL, a charity working internationally to ensure all benefit from technology, free from harm.

The button has been developed to offer anyone living in the UK a simple and convenient mechanism for gaining access to reporting routes for commonly used social networking sites, gaming platforms, apps and streaming services alongside trusted online safety advice, help and support. It also provides access to an online mechanism for reporting online harm to the RHC service for those over the age of 13 where an intial report has been made to industry but no action has been taken. RHC will review content in line with a sites' community standards and act in a mediatory capacity where content goes against these.

Children under 13 years of age are encouraged to tell an adult that they trust about what has happened and to ask for their help in reporting this going through our how we can help resource together.

RHC also have advice and links to reporting routes for other online harms people may come across or face, such as impersonation, privacy violations and intimate image abuse.  For more information about this service please see their leaflet.

Report Remove - NSPCC
If you're under 18 and a nude image or video of you has been shared online, you can report it to be removed from the internet. 

We were very lucky to have the NSPCC hold an Online Safety session for parents and carers, thank you to all the parents that came along.