Dear Parents & Carers
With so many of our pupils getting new phones and tablets and laptops we felt it was a great time to share some statistics on young people and social media and what you can do to protect them online.
See our Safer School, Safer Community Newsletter in the sidebar of the page.
We are encouraging parents to use the 3D’s.
- DIGITAL SUNSET
Set a Digital Sunset – make sure that phones/tablets are not used at least 45 minutes before bedtime. Sleep plays a crucial role in learning and development, and not just for children. Sleep serves as the downtime our brains need to sort and file the day’s sensory and emotional experiences into the various storage systems around the brain.
- DIGITAL ROLE MODEL
Your child is likely to copy your online behaviours. So if you are always on your phone then they are likely to be too. Set some Digital free zones (e.g. at the dinner table) which means you will have to follow the rules too!
- DIGITAL RESILIENCE
“Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe –We cannot make the internet completely safe. Because of this, we must build children’s resilience to the material to which they may be exposed so that they have the confidence and skills to navigate these new media waters more safely.” (a quote taken from the Safer Children in a Digital World Report of the Byron Review).
Talk to your child about the issues surrounding online safety. We cannot protect them from everything, but need to help them become safe users of technology.
You can use this checklist to help you:
- Have you checked their Privacy Settings?
- Have you used Filtering Software?
- Have you created ground rules? (e.g. no phones over the dinner table/while doing homework/no phone use after 9pm/ no phones in the bedroom)
- Do you know what your child’s online habits are? (Who are they talking to/ what apps do they have access to on their phone?)
- Do you keep the computer in a central location to save your child being in their room all of the time?
- Do you monitor the pictures your child posts online?
- Are you a good example of how use social media?
- Do you limit the use of social media?
- Do you talk about the dangers of using social media?
It is also worth noting the age restrictions for different social media platforms in the newsletter above.
As a school we want to teach our pupils to use social media appropriately and safely. Pupils will have online-safety lessons and assemblies, they will find out about the laws that surround online use. This doesn’t always mean that they follow these guidelines.
We MUST work together with home on this, as lots of use (and misuse) happens at evenings at weekends then spills over into the school gates.
If you would like any additional information on staying safe on line and helping your child to understand the dangers then please ask to speak to one of our designated safeguarding lead teachers and they will be happy to help.