E-Safety
What parents and carers need to know about Omegle
You may have read stories in the news about children using the chat website called Omegle, although it seems to be a friendly chat website, there are concerns it can contain inappropriate content for children.
At Westerhope, we always advise our parents to make sure they monitor their child's online activity at home.
The following attachment gives parents and carers information and advice about the Omegle website. We would encourage all of our parents and carers to read the information, so they are aware of the concerns linked to the website.
Information and advice about Omegle
Websites to support parents with online safety during remote learning...
Net Aware
The Net Aware website is produced by the NSPCC and can be accessed here:
This is part of the larger NSPCC website which offers a range of support to parents to support children through the Covid 19 pandemic.
The website is up to date with the last article - 8 tips for keeping your kids safe online during lockdown being published on 12th January 2021. This article contains 8 tips for parents to support them to stay safe online. Most tips encourage parents to speak to their children about online safety and encourages parents to understand the apps and programmes that children may be using. To support with this there are links to different content. The website is easy to navigate and would be suitable for parents to look at with their children. The website also contains a useful section on mobile phone apps which explains what the app does. The site also rates each app for overall safety, safety features, privacy and location, ability to report or block other users and content.
In addition to this site NSPCC also has their own learning site:
https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/news/2020/may/online-safety-during-coronavirus
This site is updated regularly however is a more formal site than Net Aware. It is more for parents to look than parents sharing with their children.
It does contain the following sections:
- Introduction to online safety
- Communicating with children online
- Supporting parents and carers
- Supporting children and young people
National Online Safety Website
This website can be accessed at a number of levels from a free subscription for parents and parents up to a full paid school membership.
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/
If parents and teachers create a free account they will still have access to a number of useful resources that parents can access including:
- NOS courses for parents – these four videos summarise for different age ranges what children may be accessing online. The video is followed by links so that parents can further understand the apps or activities that are described.
- A4 guides to explain and support parents. There are a massive number of guides which are all well presented and would allow parents to talk through the guides with children. There is a large range of content including information around setting up devices, web browsing, gaming, social media and remote learning.
- For younger children the parents section also contains a storybook called Oscar’s Adventures in the Online World which can be downloaded and shared with children. If teachers create accounts on the site they will get additional access to other materials.
#OnlineSafetyAtHome
As our children continue to learn remotely, it is important that they are continuing to learn about how to be safe when online.
Think U Know have created some brilliant home learning activities to help children understand certain aspects of online safety. If you can, it would great to complete some of the activities at home with your child.
You can access the home learning packs by clicking on the relevant phase below:
E-Safety Live Online Sessions
Google and Parent Zone have launched a new and interactive parent sessions about internet safety.
Livestreamed on YouTube and led by our expert team, these online events will introduce the Be Internet Legends programme to parents and answer any questions and concerns they might have. Stay tuned for the full schedule.
Click here to find out more about the parent sessions.
Keeping Your Child Safe on TikTok
Increasingly, more and more primary aged children are using the app TikTok even though this app is intended for users over the age of 13.
At Westerhope, we would not advise any of our children to be allowed access to the TikTok app.
The following Internet Matters website gives parents/carers information and advice about keeping children safe if you have given your child permission to use the TikTok app.
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/esafety-news/tik-tok-app-safety-what-parents-need-to-know/
Don’t forget the SMART Rules!
If you are a parent or carer, we hope you will find the web links below useful. Please read our e-safety policy.
If you have got any concerns, questions or you would like more information about e-safety at school or at home, then please do not hesitate to contact us.
Mr Thoburn is our Computing Leader and Mr Outterside is our designated safeguarding lead.
You will find lots of parent guides about apps and websites children can currently access by going to the National Online Safety website by clicking here.
www.nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/
Check out the Parent Zone website, with lots of advice and courses for Parents and Carers.
Also check out the Digital Parenting magazines, which are full of advice and articles about the digital world. You will find copies of the magazine in our main entrance.
How to keep your child safe online.
Parental controls
Parental controls can be used to block upsetting or harmful content, control in-app purchases or manage how long your child spends online. And the good news is parental controls are really easy to set up.
Have you tried?
www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/ - You tell the website what devices you want to control and it gives you handy guides to help you set up the parental controls.
Other websites include …
www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/
Monitoring your child on the internet
Children spend too much time staring at screens and are exposed to a lot of inappropriate material. It is important that you manage their screen time and control the quality of the media they engage with. There are various apps you can download to control what your child sees and how long they can spend on their devices.
Have you tried?
Kidslox
Other apps include…
Ourpact