E-Safety – Staying Safe
On-line
Practical Tips for Parents
Ralph Plummer: Assistant Head Teacher Data, IT & Business
Nick Norgrove: Assistant Head Teacher, Safeguarding Lead
Abbeyfield School
• Building a child’s digital resilience will keep them safer than blocking
or filtering
• The best way of ensuring that children stay safe and make the right
decisions online is through confident parenting.
• Allowing your child to self-regulate by encouraging their online
interests, discussing boundaries and being available for support if
they need it is far more effective than content blocking tools.
• Don’t limit the talk you have with your child to ‘the online safety
conversation’
• Discuss the adventures your children have online, take an active
interest, find out what they’re good at and like doing and make sure
that it’s an on-going discussion and that safety forms just part of this.
• Balance taking an interest in your child’s online activities with giving
them the space to be independent
• In the real world, you can’t always be there to help your children
cross the road without coming to harm – they internalise the road
safety messages you teach them and then they learn to navigate
journeys safely and independently. The same rules apply in an online
environment.
• Don’t be afraid to set boundaries
• Giving your child the freedom to explore online doesn’t mean being a
completely hands-off parent.
• Set expectations of how they should behave towards others online –
their friends and people they don’t know. Discuss rules about sharing
photos and images of themselves and others: Can they bring phones
and tablets to the table at meal times? Can they have them in their
bedrooms?
• Concentrate on how children use digital media rather than for how
long
• There’s no ‘one size fits all’ as far as screen time goes
• Does the child have a healthy balance of offline activities that they do
regularly?
• Setting a good example. Parents can help their children by not being
intimidated by new technologies, as well as modelling constructive
and balanced digital habits themselves.’
E-Safety - How to be safe online
Where can I get further information?
www.nspcc.org.uk/children-safe/share-aware
www.kidscape.org.uk/esafety
www.thinkuknow.co.uk (CEOP)
www.ceop.police.uk/Media.../New-Window-for-Online-Safety-and-Reporting
The CEOP cyber café is a great way to explore what some
of the dangers might be and how to keep safe online. Its
interactive and very easy to use. Something you could do
in partnership with your children.
E-Safety - How to be safe online
How can you support the school?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Take away internet enabled devices at bedtime
Limit screen time in the evening
Avoid allowing your child to use internet enabled devices in isolation e.g. bedrooms
Password protect the internet / your computer so it is only used when you are around or
have allowed it
5. Ensure you have turned on parental controls within the set-up of your internet
6. Ensure your children know that they can turn to you if they see something they
shouldn’t or someone is trying to contact them that they don’t know
7. Find out what sites the school is using to support your child's learning and visit these
together – ask you child to talk you through what they can do on these sites
8. Talk to your children about the dangers of using open chatrooms, social media platforms
and the need to keep personal information secure
9. Explain why legal age restrictions on social media platforms (Face book: 14, Instagram:
13) are in place and enforce them
10. Encourage students to avoid using messaging services (instant messenger type
functionalities with other devices e.g. games consoles, free online games) Ensure your
child understands the consequences of cyber bullying for both victim and perpetrator