Online Safety
Online Safety
The internet hosts many exciting opportunities for education. The online world is a wonderful place for young people to explore, with unprecedented opportunities for learning and creativity, but just like the real world there are risks and dangers they should be aware of and which we should all act to protect them from. At Morningside we encourage the use of technology as an important part of our students’ development but always want them to spend their time online safely. In school we have an internet safety code of conduct that all pupils and staff are expected to adhere too. We have strong and constantly updated filters in place to protect and govern internet use.
Hackney Safer Schools App
The Hackney Safer Schools App, which offers vital safeguarding information and advice, has been launched by Hackney Council. The Hackney Safer Schools App provides support on topics including online bullying, mental health, sexting, media literacy, gaming and sexual exploitation online. It complements information already provided by schools to children and parents. The app is being released by the Council to further help parents and carers educate, empower and protect their children in the online world. With children spending more time online, the Hackney Safer Schools App is an essential tool for everyone to learn more about avoiding online dangers and the actions needed to help make children safer.
The App is available from the Apple Store here and Google Play here
When you have downloaded the app either scan the QR code or enter: Hackney Safer Schools and the Entry Code: 7440 to log in.
Further information is available here.
‘The Morningside Web Outlaws!’ provide interesting characters which show children many of the real risks and dangers they could find online and what steps to take to keep themselves safe. E-safety is an important part of each computing lesson from Year 1 to Year 6 and children learn about a range of issues such as keeping personal information private and cyber bullying. Children in the Early Years learn about e-safety through stories and other relevant media. Morningside celebrates Safer Internet Day each year which focuses on children thinking about their role in creating a safer internet community for everyone.
The best way to protect your children online is to be informed yourself and make it part of your day to day life. We spend years training our children to cross the road and stay away from strangers in the outside world in all the daily little messages we give them before we ever let them out there on their own. Training them to be safe online should be an equal part of these safety messages, after all they can be out in the ‘world wide web’ from a very young age, unsupervised at times. Use the websites below to help you find the best ways to talk to your children about keeping safe online.
***Please remember that Social Media Sites (e.g. Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, Instagram etc) have a minimum age requirement of 13+ in their terms and conditions. Also Whats App and other internet based messaging services can only be used by 16 year olds and over.***
- Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
- Childnet
- CEOP ThinkUKnow
- CEOP’s ThinkUknow parents section
- Digital Parenting Magazine from Vodafone
- Internet terms and Language: A Guide for Parents
- PEGI games rating
- Safer Internet Centre
- ‘Simple Steps to Parental Controls’
How to Deal with Concerns
If at any point you have any concerns about your child’s safety on line please report it to CEOP (a police led online crime and safety service).
CEOP always recommend the following;
- If you need urgent help, i.e, your child is in immediate danger such as meeting a stranger they have met online, then call 999.
- Don’t delete any emails, images or conversations related to this report
- Don’t contact the suspect yourself. Let us do the detective work
Most sites will have their own report buttons too or facility to block people and pages that cause you concern.
ESafety Workshop
Morningside runs regular e-safety workshops for the parents and carer of our children. Please look on the calendar for the latest dates. Here are some handouts from previous sessions:
- E-safety at Morningside
- Mind-the-Gap
- Herts-for-Learning-Instagram-Guidance-2014-v1.3
- Facebook-13-Combined
Chris Carter also recommends some videos which we do use in school but can provide great reinforcement or the perfect talking point and conversation starter with your children.
Lee and Kim’s Adventure is aimed at 5-7 year olds but as a school we will use this video up to Year 5.
Jigsaw is aimed at 8-10 year olds but as a school we will use this video in Year 6.
Parental Controls
Many of the large internet providers list details of how you can add parental controls and restrictions that you can put in place to restrict your child’s use of the internet in your home. You can also add restrictions on individual devices. Below are some links to relevant website which might assist you in this:
Websites
Firefox – Firefox has an add-on called ‘Fox Filter’ which can be applied.
Internet Explorer does have parental/family settings. Please follow instructions below to set parental controls:
To set controls:
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select “Tools” from the toolbar
- Select “Internet Options”
- Choose the “Content” tab
- Click “Enable”
- Adjust the slider to select the level you deem appropriate for your child
- Save changes