Online Safety
Important Information - Online Safety and Covid 19
Please see the link below - this site offers practical advice and links to age appropriate online safety activities to do at home:
https://www.childnet.com/blog/keeping-children-happy-and-safe-online-during-covid-19
Here is the link to the latest government’s e-safety guidance:
We also wish to highlight this App which can be installed on chromebooks:
https://safetonet.com/foundation/covid/
Please find the link to the #Ditto online safety newsletter here:
At Whyteleafe School we regularly talk to the children about online safety and how to stay safe online. It has come to our attention that a number of children have different social media accounts, including Instagram and Facebook. Most of these social media accounts have age restrictions of 13 year + (this is true of Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook), in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In our experience children are not socially mature enough to use these types of social media and therefore we would advise parents to adhere to the age restrictions. If your child does use social media, or other communications on line, we would recommend talking with your child about e-safety and would encourage you to monitor their online activity.
Help children stay safe online:
1. Have the conversation early and often
2. Explore online together
3. Know who your child is talking to online
4. Set rules and agree boundaries
5. Make sure that content is age-appropriate
6. Use parental controls to filter, restrict, monitor or report content
7. Check they know how to use privacy settings and reporting tools
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Online safety and Fortnite
It has come to our attention that a number of children have been discussing playing the game Fortnite online. As you may be aware the age rating is PEGI 12, due to ‘frequent scenes of mild violence. It is not suitable for persons under 12 years of age’ and there are also a number of other potential issues you should be aware of:
- As Fortnite is an online game you will play against players of different ages from across the world. You cannot turn the in game chats off or choose who you play against
- Fortnite does feature violence when players are in combat with each other
- Although Battle Royale is free to play, other aspects of the game are not. There are packs which give you different access to the full game and extensions, bonuses and weapons
As recommended by the UK Safer Internet Centre the advice says:
- Have an open and honest conversation with your child
- Play the game with them
- Know how to make a report
- See what other people think of Fortnite
All of which can be found here: https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/blog/parents-guide-fortnite-battle-royale and a Parents Guide to Fortnite.
Reporting Harmful Content
There has been an increase in fake TikTok accounts using school logos and teacher names which can be reported using the impersonation tab. Impersonation is “when someone assumes the identity of another person, to harass or defraud them. It can also include behaviours such as creating fake accounts, or hijacking accounts usually with the intent of targeting an individual.”
The website also shows how to report threats, harassment and bullying, self-harm and suicide content, online abuse, violent content, unwanted sexual advances and pornographic content for a wide variety of Apps. The links take users to the App’s own reporting system but If anything harmful has not been taken down after 48 hours of reporting then a report can be submitted to the Report Harmful Content website using screenshots.
You may hear children or parents talking about “Evil Santa.” This is another extremely unpleasant viral message doing the rounds which is fact checked here.
Below are links for parents supporting children using social media. We hope you will find them useful.
