The online world develops and changes at great speed.
Although technology has many positive and engaging attributes, we need to be mindful of the potential risks the digital world can have. New opportunities, challenges and risks are appearing all the time. Online safety for children is an important topic and should be addressed and approached with a positive and welcoming mindset. Digital technologies are creating the world around us and we must all take responsibility to educate and help children safely navigate the digital space.
At West Lea, we understand the responsibility to educate our pupils about being safe in the online world. We work in partnership with our parents and carers to ensure that our children have a consistent approach to understanding possible risks.
We know, teaching students the appropriate behaviours and critical thinking skills to enable them to remain both safe and legal when using the Internet is essential. We focus on the teaching knowledge and appropriate behaviours that can help pupils to navigate the online world safely and confidently regardless of the device, platform or app. This is built into our curriculum with specific online safety lessons that is age and stage appropriate for our learners.
Some of the risks young people face online include:
- Access to illegal, harmful or inappropriate images or other content
- Loss of privacy / control of personal information
- Grooming by those with whom they make contact on the internet
- The sharing / distribution of personal images without an individual’s consent or knowledge
- Inappropriate communication / contact with others, including strangers
- Cyber bullying
- Access to unsuitable video / internet games
- An inability to evaluate the quality, accuracy and relevance of information on the internet
- Plagiarism and copyright infringement
- Illegal downloading of music or video files
- Hacking, viruses and system security
- The potential for excessive use which may impact on the social and emotional development and learning of the young person.
We are constantly reviewing and monitoring the changes that happen with technology to ensure we keep up to date with what young people are accessing and using. However, we believe that the fundamental principles of staying safe online are the same regardless of what application a young person is using.
The ‘SMART’ rules poster is great way to remember the things to think about while online. Click here or on the image for a printable version.
