E-safety
We are now in a digital world where the Internet has become more readily available and mobile, offering many exciting benefits and tremendous opportunities for everybody. It has become an essential part of young people’s lives enabling them to connect with friends, learn, play games, watch movies and have fun.
In this new digital age children's skills and confidence in using this technology is usually high, but lack of knowledge and awareness can expose them to many risks and dangers. However, there are practical steps we can all take to empower children and young people to be safe when using using the Internet.
At The Oval School we use a range measures to help keep children safe when using the internet. These include active monitoring software, web filtering and anti virus software. We teach children how to be safe on the internet through discussion and practical resources such as Hector's World with Key Stage 1 and Cyber Cafe with Key Stage 2. We set rules and agree boundaries through our school's 'acceptable use of the internet policy' (AUP) which anyone who uses the internet at school has to sign.
The school is committed to reviewing practice and improving e-safety within the school. Using resources such 360 degree safe allows us to evaluate our school’s e-safety provision and strategy.
We can be successful in reducing these risks if we all work together: pupils, parents and teachers empowering all children be safer online.
Try this CEOP parents quiz to see just how switched on you are about the dangers surrounding children when using the internet…
There are some helpful websites, which can offer up to date advice. Follow the links below...
Useful Links for Keeping Children & Young People Safe Online
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Online safety advice for parents |
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Website for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre |
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Excellent free resources for educators and parents/carers |
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become responsible DIGItal citiZENS |
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Online safety - Information for parents and children about online safety |
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Parents guide to social networks children use |
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Reporting cyber bullying |
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UK Safer Internet Centre |
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Get help and advice about a wide range of issues |
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Help your family build good online safety habits |
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Making the Internet work for Families |
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Parents’ guidebooks, advice, news and commentary on all aspects of tech use and policy |
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Excellent guide for parents on digital technologies |
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Advice on computer gaming and how to apply parental controls |
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Information about age ratings of video games |
The main rules to tell your children
- Always use privacy settings.
- Use different passwords for each account.
- Avoid keeping your passwords written down and never store them on your web browser.
- Never share a password and PINs with anyone – not even your best friend.
- Never give your information to someone you don’t know in the real world.
Improve online safety by...
- Introducing parental controls and other online tools to help your child have a safer and more private online experience, many of which are free and easy to set up
- Making sure you have anti-virus and online security software installed which helps protect your computer from outside attacks, such as malware and viruses that could try to steal information off your computer.
Below are some examples of software, but please note we are not recommending one over the others: There are many others to choose from and many of you may already have safeguards in place.
Parental Control Software
Mobile/Tablet Device Monitoring Software
Free Anti-Virus Software