ONLINE SAFETY FOR PARENTS
ONLINE SAFETY IN SCHOOL
We take online safety very seriously at English Martyrs' and we try to make sure we educate both our children and parents in the best ways to stay safe online.
We seek parental permission for children's photographs to be added to the school website and we never name children or include any personal information. Please scroll down for website links and information.
Children at English Martyrs' use the internet for many different aspects of their curriculum. The internet is a fantastic source of information, it enhances learning and really can make learning fun. However, the internet can also be a dangerous place as it is so vast and easily accessible. We want children to gain the most from being able to use the internet and that is why it is essential that children are aware of the risks and boundaries in order to keep themselves safe while they are online.
In school there is a filtering system put in place to ensure no inappropriate sites can be accessed. E-safety is embedded within the curriculum where using the internet is concerned. As a school, we have had e-safety days where children take part in activities and games to inform them about sensible online behaviour and what to do if they see something they are not sure about.
This section of our website will provide you and your child with some guidance and tips on how to stay safe online at home
PARENT SAFETY GUIDES
FIFA
You don't need to be a football fan to have heard of the FIFA series of games (named after the Federation Internationale de Football Association: the worldwide governing body for the sport).
Part of the franchise’s massive appeal is that official licensing gives users the opportunity to play games as their favourite teams, controlling their favourite footballers.
They either compete online against other players or work through a solo-player career mode. With updated editions launched annually, FIFA is playable on a range of consoles, with mobile versions available for smartphones and tablets.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as addiction, scams and in-game chat.
Facebook is an online social media platform that has over 2 billion users across the globe. It was initially for university students but soon expanded out and since 2006, anyone over the age of 13 is able to join the platform. It is available on all devices from your desktop and laptop computer to smartphones and tablets. Users can add photos and videos, update their status, interact with others and catch up with the latest news. Despite requiring users to be over 13, there are no age verification measures and children can easily create an account. It’s therefore important that parents familiarise themselves with the main features of the platform to ensure their young ones remain safe if and when they use it.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as the addictive nature of Facebook, cyberbullying and the impact social media can have on your child’s future.
Healthy Friendships May 2024
A study from the British Psychological Society found that the majority of children (71%) had at least one close friend as early as five years old.
These connections can form rather quickly and develop with equal speed. At such a young age, it can be remarkable how suddenly children hit if off with one another.
However, it is deeply important that children can recognise both the features of a healthy relationships as well as the potential signs of a less healthy dynamic.
Our #WakeUpWednesday guide offers some top tips on reinforcing the formation of healthy friendships among children and young people.
Instagram is a hugely popular social networking app with over 1 billion users worldwide. The app, which is accessible on iOS and Android devices, allows users to upload images and videos to their feed, create interactive ‘stories’, exchange private messages or search, explore and follow other accounts they like.
Images and videos can be transformed with an array of filters to edit the shot before sharing and anyone with an account can see others’ online ‘galleries’ if their account is not private. To make posts easier to find, users can include searchable hashtags and captions to their uploads. That’s why we’ve created this guide to help parents and carers understand exactly what Instagram is about.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as exposing your child’s location, in-app purchases and poor mental wellbeing.
PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 is the next-generation video game console for Sony. It offers improved graphics, sound and much quicker loading times. It also has a new controller with motion-and force-feedback features for a more immersive experience. Parents should note that there are two different versions available that support discs or digital downloads.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as spending money, age-inappropriate content and strangers online.
Roblox
With more than 150 million users worldwide, Roblox is one of the most popular video games of recent times. Roblox allows users to create their own gaming experiences using Roblox Studio: building levels and games then allowing other people to play them. Similarly, players can play each other’s creations, either on their own or with other people online. While it’s a tool that can help foster creative thinking, Roblox is also intermittently in the news amid concerns over young users’ safety.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as in-app purchases, online dating and chat functionality.
Search Engines
A search engine is something that helps you find what you’re looking for on the internet. By far the most used and well-known search engine is Google, which powers more than nice out of ten internet searches in the UK, according to Statcounter.com. Search engines can be used to find results such as website, images and videos, which is where the dangers start to arise.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as bypassing SafeSearch, inappropriate content and misleading information.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a photo- and video-sharing app through which users can chat with friends via text or audio.
Images and videos can be shared with specific friends, or as a ‘story’ (documenting the previous 24 hours) that’s visible to a person’s entire friend list.
Snapchat usage rose during the lockdowns, with many young people utilising it to stay connected with their peers.
The app continues to develop features to engage an even larger audience and emulate current trends, rivalling platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
Squid Game
With themes of horror and violence, it’s important for parents and carers to understand the potential risks posed to young audiences by the nine-episode Netflix-exclusive TV show, Squid Game.
The series, rated 15+, is about a world where contestants who are deeply in debt play children's games in order to win cash prizes. The losers, however, are violently killed. The show’s popularity has meant it has spread in various guises across online platforms, with a heightened risk of children and young people potentially viewing unsuitable content.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as inappropriate content, viral spin-offs and scene re-enactments.
TikTok
TikTok is a video-sharing social media app which lets people create, view and download looping 15-second clips.
Typically, these are videos of users lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs or soundbites (often for comic purposes), enhanced with filters, effects and text.
Designed with young people in mind, TikTok skyrocketed in popularity in 2019 and has featured near the top of download charts ever since.
It now has around 1 billion active users worldwide.
Tips for New Devices
The current generation are the first children to grow up in a world where digital devices are the norm. Recent studies have found that 88% of British 12-year-olds have a smartphone. Four out of ten 6-year-olds own a tablet. And almost two-thirds (64%) of children aged 8-11 use a games console. It’s now rare to find a child who doesn’t regularly use internet-enabled technology. Each new device means exciting new corners of the digital world to explore – and, unfortunately, new risks to be aware of.
We’ve put together our top tips to help you guide your children in enjoying new digital devices safely and responsibly.
In this guide, you'll find tips such as how to turn location settings off, how to discourage device dependency and how to set up parental controls.
Video Streaming
Streaming is the latest step in a journey that’s taken us all the way from records and cassettes to CDs and DVDs and, more recently, to downloads. It’s a seamless way of watching or listening to all sorts of content such as TV shows, films, sports highlights and music, over an internet connection in ‘real time’, without having to download a file or store it on your device. You can either stream ‘on-demand’ or live. YouTube was one of the first video streaming services to go mainstream, but today many of the world’s most popular websites are streaming platforms, including Netflix, Spotify, and BBC iPlayer.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as online scams, online addiction and inappropriate content.
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging service, with around two billion users exchanging texts, photos, videos and documents, and making voice and video calls.
The app offers end-to-end encryption, meaning messages can only be read by the sender and the recipient(s). Not even WhatsApp can read them. Updates to its privacy policy in 2021 reportedly caused millions of users to leave the app. But the new policy was widely misinterpreted: it only related to WhatsApp’s business features, not to personal messages.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as stranger danger, live location sharing and disappearing messages.
Wizz
As of spring 2023, Wizz sits in the App Store’s top 20 social networking downloads and has amassed an impressive 10 million users globally. The majority of its user-base hail from Generation Z (that’s anyone currently between the ages of about 8 and their early 20s), with the app’s aim being to enable young people to forge rewarding online connections with others.
Despite its verification processes and security checks, Wizz can still be prone to risk, however. Bypassing the age limit of 13 isn’t particularly difficult, and – regrettably – wherever young people gather to chat online, potential predators and the possibility of explicit material are seldom far behind.
Xbox Series S/X
The Xbox Series X and Series S are the next-generation video game consoles from Microsoft. They offer improved graphics, sounds and much quicker loading times. Parents should note that the two versions available are quite different.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as age-inappropriate games, online interactions and in-game spending.
YouTube
YouTube is an online platform – owned by Google – where anyone can upload & watch video content. All different types of information, advice & entertainment are uploaded & billions of people tune in to watch, rate & comment on it. As a parent, it’s important you understand exactly what content your children might be seeing.
In this guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content and privacy.