E-safety reminders

You may have seen some alarming stories recently in the news and on social media, regarding the children's online safety involving children’s videos on YouTube. 

While it is important to be aware of specific issues, it should also be understood that, sadly, the Internet is full of inappropriate material for children.

We take e-safety very seriously at Becontree Primary School and children are taught about keeping themselves safe online in every year group. This message is reinforced throughout the year. We also have effective filtering set up to block certain content.

However, much of the time that children spend online is at home, not at school, and we understand how difficult it can be to monitor your children’s online activity at home in order to keep them safe.

These are the key pieces of advice/ rules to help keep children safe online at home:

• Follow the age restrictions for websites and apps. These offer a good guide as to whether an app or service is appropriate for your child.
• Check and turn on privacy settings in apps and websites, and set up parental controls on your broadband service.
• Don’t participate in any anonymous chat – turn off the chat option if possible.
• Block and report any inappropriate contact.
• Keep family computers in a communal area so that you can talk about and share what children are doing online

Most importantly, keep the conversation open with your children. Talk to them about what they are doing online, celebrate the exciting stuff (there is lots of exciting stuff out there) and remind them of the importance of keeping private information to themselves and not taking risks.