Internet Safety

Staying Safe Online

 

The Internet offers great experiences for adults and children. There are opportunities to improve your life, have some fun, enhance your education or pursue business interests. Young people are often enthusiastic Internet users, particularly of interactive services like Email, Chat and Instant Messaging. However, like many exciting activities, there are risky situations to deal with and hazards to avoid.

We are aware that many of our children have phones, tablets and gaming devices. Teaching children to be safe online and making responsible decisions is something we prioritise at St.Mary’s Primary. We want our children to be safe from an early age and understand how to be responsible IT users. 

We teach discrete online safety lessons as part of our Computing curriculum and through our PSHE scheme of learning. We want parents to support their children with the work we do at school. We see this partnership as the best way to protect and teach our children to be safe online. 



Golden Rules for Internet usage:

 

  • Keep personal information confidential. For example, don't give out your name, age, or phone number.

  • Get to know the services and websites that your child uses.

  • Don't believe everything you read or see online.

  • Encourage children to tell you about anything they find that is suggestive, obscene, threatening or makes them feel uncomfortable.

  • Don't immediately blame the child if they receive or access something obscene - this may have been done accidentally.

  • Use the Internet as a family activity and if possible, keep the computer in a family room rather than in a child's bedroom.

  • Try to get to know your child's online friends as you would their other friends.

  • Try not to use the PC or the Internet as an electronic babysitter.

  • Set your own golden rules and after discussing them, stick them at the side of the computer.




Useful links for parents:

 

NSPCC

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

 

Parent Zone

https://parentzone.org.uk/

 

National Online Safety 

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/