CAPTAIN WEBB PRIMARY SCHOOL AND NURSERY
Online Safety
Safer Internet Day 2023
This year we once again took part in Safer Internet Day! Our teachers made sure we had space to talk about what devices we use to access the internet, what we do when we are online, what we like about using the internet and what our worries are. We recorded our thoughts and added them to the Safer Internet Day ‘Video Wall’ where industry leaders and online safety experts will listen to our voices!
Our children now live in a 'Global Village' and it is important that we work together to ensure our children are safe both in the real world and online.
How we keep children safe online
At Captain Webb Primary School, children learn how to stay safe online by being aware of their conduct (their own behaviour online), knowing what is, and how to find, appropriate content and the risks of contact from both people they know and people they don't know.
Our online safety curriculum is led by Education for a Connected World and relevant objectives are tied in Computing and PSHE lessons too. We block an entire week of theme work for children to learn about age specific aspects of online safety during 'Safer Internet Week' and the school is visited by several outside agencies (such as the NSPCC, Google and the local police) to learn about current online safety issues. Our Student Council plays an active role in discussion and decision making with all aspects of safety, including online safety.
We play an active role with parents, meeting regularly with anyone who may have concerns about their child's safety on the internet. If you have any concerns about online safety, please do not hesitate to get in touch and come and speak with one of our Online Safety experts.
Tips for keeping your child safe online:
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Know what your children are doing online and who they are talking to. Ask them to teach you to use any applications you have never used
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Keeping the computer in a family room means that you can share your child’s online experience – and that they are less likely to act inappropriately (i.e. via webcam).
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Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends — personal information includes their messenger ID, email address, mobile number and any pictures of themselves, their family or friends. If your child publishes a picture or video online, anyone can change it or share it. Remind them that anyone may be looking at their images and one day a future employer could!
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If your child receives spam/junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them. It’s not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they don’t know. They won’t know what they contain — it could be a virus, or worse — an inappropriate image or film.
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Help your child to understand that some people lie online and therefore it’s better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust.
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Always keep communication open for a child to know that it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.
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Teach young people how to block someone online and how to report them if they feel uncomfortable.
Useful Websites
You may find these websites useful if you wish find out more about internet safety:
www.ceop.gov.uk - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. They are a Government agency that is part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.
www.thinkuknow.co.uk - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has set up its own educational website which has been designed and written specifically for children, young people, teachers, parents and carers.
www.kidsmart.org.uk- Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to ‘stay safe’ online.
http://parents.vodafone.com/ - Vodafone have developed this website in conjunction with mumsnet. It is very accessible and provides information and guidance to parents about understanding their child’s digital world and about getting more involved. There is even an on-line test to see how much you know!
Physical Security Systems we have in place
In addition to teaching our children how to stay safe online we have installed, on our internet and IT systems, several security systems to block and filter out any inappropriate content:
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SOPHOS – For email filtering/blocking. This is used to detect phishing emails, or inappropriate content.
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Windows virus and threat detection – Virus protection, configured and looked after by the Local Authority 3rd line network techs
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Smoothwall – Our firewall, which allows/blocks things throughout the network on any device. This is when webpages get blocked etc. to stop children accessing inappropriate material online.
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We have general computer settings on all devices, which restricts certain actions on the equipment such as downloading programmes etc.
In addition we also have installed SENSO which offers top-level overview and reporting of all violations across a single or multi-site setup, Senso's safeguarding software is able to deliver unparalleled insight into a users actions and behaviours using advanced AI driven visual threat analysis. It is installed on every device and runs in the background. if it detects any inappropriate language use, internet searches etc. it takes a screen shot of the activity, and sends a report to the Head and the SBM.
