Keeping Your Child Safe Online

Primary School children today are growing up in a world where use of the internet is a significant part of their everyday lives, including in play, education and social interactions. At Bentfield Primary School, we aim through our computing and PSHE curriculum to prepare our pupils to exist in this world while keeping themselves and others safe. We also aim to provide parents and carers with advice to support in keeping their children safe in the online world outside of school. 

In Person Online Safety Parent Workshop

Body Image and Social Media Survey

There is a growing trend within children and young people at the moment to be more concerned with their body image than in more recent times and access to social media platforms can exacerbate this. A recent survey of secondary aged pupils has been carried out and you can see the findings and advice for supporting children with navigating this difficult area via the link below. The survey is for children older than those at our school; however, as I am sure you can imagine, the same trends filter down into primary school, especially those who access social media platforms - even if this is just accessing Youtube! The poster below shows the key findings and the link is underneath that.

Online Grooming

Online grooming is one of the key dangers of children spending time online. This can take place through any game or platform where people can communicate with others online. The NNECA have produced videos explaining what online grooming is and also a video of tips for preventing online grooming. Follow the links below to take a look. 

Online Guidance

See the poster below for a variety of guides on how to support your child to stay safe online. Use the QR code to head to the website for lots of guidance and information.

Managing Online Gaming

Have a look at the guide below for some advice on how to manage your children's online gaming and how to support them in staying safe.

Internet Watch Foundation Report

The Internet Watch Foundation are an organisation that carry out research into harmful content online. The link below will take you to the report of their findings from 2022. It contains some remarkable statistics about particularly the age groups of children of whom indecent images can be found online and the percentage of these which are self-generated. This potential danger for children online can often be viewed as one for children beyond primary years, but this report shows differently and highlights the importance of speaking to children about their use of the internet and monitoring their safety online.

ChatGPT

New developments in technology bring advantages in many ways, but also can bring potential new risks when using these. ChatGPT uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to answer questions or create content requested by the user. For more information, please click on the link below, which discusses in detail the advantages and concerns that this technology brings.

Christmas and Post-Christmas E-safety Advice...

Christmas is often a time when children can receive new devices and games which may give them greater access to the online world. As children take these steps further into online platforms, it is useful to have as much information as possible to support them in keeping themselves safe online. Below are a series of links which cover some of the most up-to-date internet safety topics as well as a video clip from E-safety experts, 'The 2 Johns'. 

What you could do at home...

Your child using technology can the internet can seem a bit daunting due to the risks that children can face online - such as cyberbullying, contact from strangers and the possibility of seeing inappropriate content.

You can click here to see a simple checklist that you can use to help to keep your child safe through online activities. You can also find more tip for engaging your child in conversations about staying safe online from: https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/parent-and-carer-toolkit.

The '2 Johns'...

In November 2022, we had a fantastic e-safety session for parents by the '2 Johns' - former police officers, who are not e-safety training experts. Take a look at the link below where they have lots of advice about specific social media site, how to use settings on different apps and lots more current e-safety topics.

Tik Tok...

Tik Tok is one of the most popular social media platforms with young people at the moment. Via this, videos can be shared around the world instantly - there are over 100 million Tik Tok users in the United States alone! It is important to remember that to safeguard children from viewing harmful content and to prevent them from posting things that they will later regret, the minimum age for using Tik Tok is 13. If your child does use Tik Tok, it is a good idea to look at their privacy settings and discuss with them about what they are choosing to post - particularly thinking about any content which has other people or locations that could identify them or others on it. 

Below are two links that give a parent guide to Tik Tok and how it can be used safely:

Further Resources...

Below are a number of links to websites and resources that can support further with keeping your child safe online. If you have any specific concerns or questions, please get in touch with your child's class teacher, who will support or signpost you to someone else who can.

You can also download our school E-safety policy below for more information about what your child will learn about e-safety in school.

Useful Websites...

Think U Know - 4-7 year-olds

Think U Know - all ages

Internet Matters

Department for Education - Information for Parents

Keeping Safe Using Smartphones

Childnet

CEOP - police organisation responsible for investigating online crimes