Rushall Primary School - Online Safety

Online Safety - Information for Parents

Developing children's digital safety and resilience is a priority for you as parents and us as a school. By doing this, we will allow children to benefit from the exciting opportunities the internet has to offer whilst also being aware of how to stay safe when using it, and what to do if something goes wrong.

We expect our parents to attend at least one of our Online safety workshops for parents each year. Our workshop dates are:

Friday 8th February 2019 - 9am & 2pm

Keeping your Children Safe

You keep your children safe in the real world. Here are some things you may want to do to help your children 'Stay Safe' in the online world:

Set ground rules and with younger children agree which websites they can visit. Remember these will vary depending upon the ages of your children.

Agree time limits and regular breaks. Remember letting children play video games just before bedtime may stop them sleeping and have an impact on their learning.

Find out how to set the parental controls and safe search. Consider buying parental monitoring/control software for younger children. Remember none of these are 100% effective and supervision is always needed.

Check the home page of your children's favourite social network, game and so on. This will give you an overview of the website and its suitability.

Spend 30 minutes watching your children play an online game so that you can see the content and be happy that it is suitable for them.

Check the age ratings of games at PEGI. Remember video games ratings are all about the content and not the difficulty of the game.

Say NO to your child playing any game that has a rating of 18 years and above or using websites that you think are unsuitable.

Talk you children about their privacy settings and ask them to show you how to change these settings. Encourage your children to only have online friends that know in the real world.

Tell your children what to do if they ever feel frightened or scared when online or using their mobile phone. It is important that your children know they can always talk to you and you will help them (you may not know the answer but by talking to the school, other parents, ThinkUknow FAQs, mobile phone provider and so on you will be able to find a solution.

Visit ThinkUknow and look at the parents' section. Show your child the 'Report Abuse' button and together click to see the advice and links.

Nude Selfies

CEOP have launched 'Nude Selfies: What Parents and Carers Need to Know'. This is a series of four short animated films for parents and carers offering advice on how to help keep their children safe from the risks associated with sharing nude and nearly nude images.

The films aim to help parents and carers:

Understand young people's motivations for sending nude selfies.
Plan to respond positively and constructively to an incident in which their child has shared a nude selfie.
Gain confidence and skills in initiating preventative conversations.
Identify risky behaviours or situations and know where to seek help.
Know how to get help if a child is at risk after sharing an image.