Federation Beliefs

The staff at the Federation believe that children should be taught to use the internet safely, allowing them to experience the benefits that its use can provide.

Whilst at school, the children will be taught the following in class or age-appropriate assemblies:

• What to do to stay safe online.
• What they should do if they feel unsafe online.
• At school, your children learn behind the schools’ protective filtering system that restricts what children can access. Most computers your children will use do not have such a rigorous filtering system (i.e. at home). Thus, we need your help to ensure they stay safe online. 

An estimated one-third of children have a social media account, so it’s important that trusted adults know what content young people are consuming, what they’re posting and the interactions they’re having. On social media, it can be easy to go down a rabbit hole that isn’t beneficial to our wellbeing. As platforms grapple with managing ‘legal but harmful’ content, lives are being impacted – sometimes to tragic effect. We might be daunted by the scale of the tech giants and their content which enthrals young people, but we can still help children to be mindful of their mental wellness: recognising when something isn’t OK … and knowing what to do about content that upsets them.

In the guide below, you'll find tips such as how to hide content, setting daily limits and discussing what children have seen online.

Talk to them about what they are going on when they are online and the potential dangers that those sites may have, remind them what they should do if they see or hear anything that they do not like or makes them feel uncomfortable. 

Keep an eye on what they do online by allowing your child on the internet somewhere where you can see what they are looking at.

Make sure that you have the relevant settings set on the device that they are using to go online. 

Internet Matters have produced their own app, which is designed to help parents learn together with their child about key online safety issues. 

The app is available to download for android devices here and for iOS devices here 

Below are a series of links to a variety of sites that you can look at either on your own or with your child.   The titles indicate the content of each page.

Apex Legends: everything you need to know about the battle royale game

internetmatters.org

commonsensemedia.org

NSPCC Online safety

How to be SMART using the Internet

Dangers lurking on the Internet

How to be a SMART game player

How to search safely on the Internet

What are digital footprints?

Using mobile phones safely

SMART social networking

Think You Know - a comprehensive site

Learn how to spot dangers and stay safe online

A guide to social networks your child might use

Minecraft and e-Safety

A complete guide for parents