Online Safety Policy and PREVENT Agenda
Online Safety
Online Safety is incredibly important. We teach children to stay safe online and reinforce this regularly. All use of the internet is monitored by staff members. Our internet content is filtered through Cumberland County Council who use 'Securly'. Despite these filtering systems, children are taught to bring to a staff member's attention, anything which upsets or distresses them.
Children are vulnerable when they are online, especially if they enter chat rooms or other un-monitored arenas. Our children are taught to:
Never tell anyone where you live.
Never tell anyone your personal details.
Never send anyone pictures of yourself or your family.
Always tell an adult if you feel uncomfortable or if someone asks you for personal information.
We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the e-Safety message is consistent. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online.
**If you have any concerns about online safety related to a child, you should report it to school as you would any other safeguarding concern.
We have joined with Knowsley City Learning Centres who provide monthly Newsletters on Online Safety and have produced booklets and videos for guidance.
The following link takes you to the videos showing, for example, setting up parental controls on an iPhone.
https://www.knowsleyclcs.org.uk/online-safety-videos/
Search engines
Please note that no search engine is ever 100% safe but below provides some links to some “safer” search engines:
Research searching
Google offers a safer search option for children searching on the Internet. You can find out how to do this by downloading the instructions at the bottom of the page.
Image searching
Gaming
When children are accessing games via Xbox LIVE, privacy settings can be set up. To read more, click here.
Websites for more information
Please click on the icon to go to the relevant site
CEOP (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) delivers a multi-agency service dedicated to tackling the abuse and exploitation of children in the real and ‘e’ world. Often it is referred to as an online 999. By clicking on the button, young people and parents can get advice on a range of issues such as viruses, hacking and dealing with bullying online.
Vodafone have produced a digital parenting magazine which informs parents about the various technologies children are accessing today. There is information on Facebook settings, Xbox 360 settings, Blackberry settings, jargon busting and many more 'How to Guides'. They are well worth a read and some are attached below for you to download.
The “Thinkuknow” website is brought to you by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre.
Childnet has lots of excellent resources for Parents and Carers about keeping children safe online.
Kidsmart gives you lots of advice on how to stay safe online.
New e-Safety Portal for Parents and Schools – Internet Matters
Internet Matters is a new online portal designed for parents to access simple, easy and practical advice about online safety for their children, right through from pre-school to teens. It provides tips on protecting children from online grooming, cyberbullying, privacy and identity theft and inappropriate content. Internet Matters is a not-for profit organisation set up by BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.
ParentINFO is a collaboration between ParentZone and CEOP. There are useful guides and articles on helping your child stay safe online.
PREVENT Agenda
By law, we are required to report any behaviour which falls under the PREVENT agenda. PREVENT is designed to prevent radicalisation in any form. Generally people only assume that this applies to radical Islam. This is far from the truth, PREVENT is equally designed to stop any behaviours which go against British values. This can include, but is not limited to, racism. far-right agendas or other radical actions that affect the rule of law.