Online Safety
Online safety is a key element for all adults, at school and at home, to consider in order to safeguard children in their care, whether that is in school, at home or out in the community.
Much of the advice below comes from the government’s advice for keeping children safe in school.
The breadth of issues classified within online safety can be categorised into four areas of risk:
Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, and extremism.
Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure,
Commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes. conduct: online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying, and
Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing. Please report phishing to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (https://apwg.org/).
It is a fact that many children have unlimited and unrestricted access to the internet via mobile phone networks (i.e. 3G, 4G and 5G). This access means some children sexually harass, bully, and control others via their mobile and smart technology, share indecent images consensually and non-consensually (often via large chat groups) and view and share pornography and other harmful content.
All adults need to be aware that this is happening even if they are not directly aware of any specific cases or experiences. Among other things this can lead to widespread abuse or harm across a number of social media platforms that leads to repeat victimisation.
We aim to reduce the risk of this happening at school with our no phones policy “on Site - out of site” , and through our education around online safety and through building a community of equals that lives out our core values of Caritas Excellence and together in all aspects of life including online.
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Online concerns can be especially complicated and support is available from:
Internet Watch Foundation: If the incident/report involves sexual images or videos that have been made and circulated online, the victim can be supported to get the images removed by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) https://www.iwf.org.uk/
Childline/IWF Report Remove is a free tool that allows children to report nude or sexual images and/or videos of themselves that they think might have been shared online
https://www.iwf.org.uk/our-technology/report-remove/
More general advice and guidance from parents
Parentzone is a provider we highly recommend and provides help for parents and carers on how to keep their children safe online
https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/parent-and-carer-toolkit
Childnet offer a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, and to find out where to get more help and support
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/
Commonsensemedia provide independent reviews, age ratings, & other information about all types of media for children and their parents
https://www.internetmatters.org/
Internet Matters provide age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls, and practical tips to help children get the most out of their digital world
How Can I Help My Child? Marie Collins Foundation – Sexual Abuse Online Let’s Talk About It provides advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation
Stopitnow resource from The Lucy Faithfull Foundation can be used by parents and carers who are concerned about someone’s behaviour, including children who may be displaying concerning sexual behaviour (not just about online)
National Crime Agency/CEOP Thinkuknow provides support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
Online Safety- Support for children - these are the sources we recommend in school.
Childline for free and confidential advice https://www.childline.org.uk/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=UK_GO_S_B_BND_Grant_Childline_Information&utm_term=role_of_childline&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlfLRh-ez6AIVRrDtCh1N9QR2EAAYASAAEgLc-vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
UK Safer Internet Centre to report and remove harmful online content https://reportharmfulcontent.com/
CEOP for advice on making a report about online abuse https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/