Deenah: Week 1: E- Safety in Schools

Welcome to week 1 of my blog!

E-Safety is about using information and communication technologies in a SAFE and RESPONSIBLE way. It helps to safeguard young people in the digital world ensuring that they feel safe when accessing new technology.

Teachers and support staff in schools must understand enough about the internet to safeguard children, but it is equally important that they provide children with the skills they need to keep themselves safe.

Some key issues and dangers involved when children use the internet are:

Inappropriate content- there is a risk that when using the internet or other online service and technologies that children may be exposed to inappropriate content.

Grooming- paedophiles make use of the internet, chat rooms, gaming and social software to make contact with young people.

Cyberbullying- cyberbullying is when one or more people tease, harass, threaten or embarrass another person using technology making their victim feel very isolated, lonely, distressed, scared and vulnerable. Children can fall victim to cyberbullying, they can also become the bully, and they may even be drawn into cyberbullying without even realising it.

E-commerce- E-commerce is the risk of children giving out ﬁnancial details (e.g. their parent’s credit card details) while online resulting in unexpected consequences and charges.

Peer pressure- there is a risk that children may get involved in inappropriate or antisocial behaviour while using technologies.

To help prevent the dangers involved when children use the internet they should be introduced to e-safety education when they first begin to use technology. Safe internet practices should be embedded into the culture of all schools.

Each school must have a designated person who is responsible for the e-safety of the school and should act as the central point of contact for all safety issues within the school. Their role should be to ensure that policies are current and that any breeches or abuse are monitored and reported where appropriate. They must ensure that all staff receive relevant information about emerging issues.

All schools using ICT must have an acceptable use policy in place to protect the interests of both the pupils and staff. This policy should be linked to other school policies such as the bullying policy.

Ways that schools can promote and provide children with the safe use of technology are:

Filtered internet- most educational internet service providers offer ﬁltered internet service to prevent access to undesirable content. Some schools use additional software to enhance this service. It is important for schools to realise that filtered internet services are not completely fool proof and that the children’s safe and responsible approach to using the internet is key.

Filtered email- in the same way that internet access may be ﬁltered, email messages should also be ﬁltered for inappropriate content and spam. Also individual pupils should not be identiﬁed via their email address.

E-safety education- children should be educated on their school’s acceptable use policy and they should be taught the SMART rules for keeping safe when using the internet.

E-safety policies should be monitored and reviewed regularly and staff should be aware of the procedures to follow if they encounter problems and should update their knowledge regularly. All teachers who use ICT in the classroom have a duty of care to ensure that pupils are reminded about appropriate behaviour on a regular basis. Parents and carers have a key role to play in promoting e-safety at home.

I hope that you have found my blog helpful and below are some links with helpful resources that can be used by teachers and parents to teach children about e-safety and ways of keeping safe.

Enjoy the rest of your week!