Online Safety
Click the above link if you’re worried about online abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you online.
Our overall Online Safety Lead is
Ms Barham, Headteacher & DSL
Our day-to-day Online Safety Lead is
Mr Forwood, Deputy Headteacher & Deputy DSL
Related Policies
A guide to protecting your children from online hate, extremism and fake news
Social Networks
5 – 7 year olds – The most popular and well known social networks will be off-limits, but social games such as, 'Game of Life', are a great way for your children to play interactive games with other trusted people known to you to dip a toe in the water, with a bit of parental supervision. Just keep an eye on in-app purchases, set clear boundaries for use and start talking about staying safe and what to do if they have a concern. There are also some social networks made specifically for primary aged children – PlayKids Talk, Grom Social and Spotlite - see below.
8 – 11 year olds – The most popular and well known social networks will still be off-limits. Social networks will start to come onto the radar for children, but it is important to resist for now as the age limit for almost all social media sites is 13.
You may also be thinking about your child’s first phone or tablet. Consider using app store gift cards to limit how much they spend on downloads. Make sure that if you use your credit cards for purchasing anything for your child, you delete it immediately otherwise you may run up a large bill very quickly!
12-15 year olds – The age restriction for most social networks is 13. Discuss what’s safe to share, and help set up their account. They may let you follow or friend them, but they’ll also want some independence, so talk regularly about what they’re doing online and who they’re chatting to so they know they can come to you if something goes wrong.
16+ year olds – Your teenager will no doubt be a social networking pro by now and may well be experimenting with meeting new people online. Respect their space, as you would in real life, and resist temptation to snoop. Instead chat openly about what they’re up to – this way, you can check they’re sharing information wisely.
Social Network for primary aged children
The following social networks have suggested ages of 4+. Parents and carers can set up child accounts and monitor their accounts.
PlayKids Talk Grom Social
The following social network has a suggested age of 8+. There are 24/7 content moderators that moderate content on the app.
Spotlite
Age limits for Social Network accounts
AGE LIMIT 13 YEARS OLD:
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GOOGLE + |
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OOVOO |
SKYPE |
SNAPCHAT |
X (formerly Twitter) |
YOUTUBE |
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Threads |
AGE LIMIT 16 YEARS OLD:
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Here are some checklists and guides as to how the privacy and safety features work on some of the more popular social media sites. The swgfl ones can be downloaded for free.
Threads - A guide for parents and carers - UK Safer Internet Centre
Roblox Privacy and Safety Checklist - swgfl.org.uk
Facebook Privacy and Safety Checklist - swgfl.org.uk
Twitter Privacy and Safety Checklist - swgfl.org.uk
Instagram Privacy and Safety Checklist - swgfl.org.uk
Snapchat Privacy and Safety Checklist - swgfl.org.uk
Reporting harmful content on Social Media
The RHC button is an asset of SWGfL, a charity working internationally to ensure all benefit from technology, free from harm.
The button has been developed to offer anyone living in the UK a simple and convenient mechanism for gaining access to reporting routes for commonly used social networking sites, gaming platforms, apps and streaming services alongside trusted online safety advice, help and support. It also provides access to an online mechanism for reporting online harm to the RHC service for those over the age of 13 where an initial report has been made to industry but no action has been taken. RHC will review content in line with a sites' community standards and act in a mediatory capacity where content goes against these.
Children under 13 years of age are encouraged to tell an adult that they trust about what has happened and to ask for their help in reporting this going through our how we can help resource together.
RHC also have advice and links to reporting routes for other online harms people may come across or face, such as impersonation, privacy violations and intimate image abuse.
The RHC button provides a gateway to the RHC reporting pages, an area of the RHC website offering:
- links to reporting routes on commonly used sites for 8 types of online harm
- help, advice and support on what to do if experiencing or witnessing harm online
- signposting to industry partners reporting forms and the ability to report legal but harmful content directly to RHC for further investigation
- links to reporting terrorism related content (Action Counters Terrorism) and under 18s sexual images (Internet Watch Foundation)
School's Internet Filtering System
The school uses RM™ Safety Net as its filtering system. This system is a cloud-based web filtering system that proactively monitors and updates the status of billions of blocked or bad websites online every hour of the day. This system is far better than a traditional school server-based software solution that can become out of date if not regularly checked or indeed can be hacked and deactivated by outside or internal 3rd parties.
Please note, no filtering system can be 100% effective.
However, RM™ Safety Net is specifically designed for schools and blocks all webpages flagged by the ‘Internet Watch Foundation’s Child Abuse Content URL’ list and the ‘Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit’ (CTIRU) list. The blocking of these two lists cannot be disabled by the school. There is also a list of other categories of websites (for example, pornography and violence) that are blocked and the school enforces all of these too. There is a further layer of protection where the school may choose to block any websites it deems appropriate to. The school may also allow access to any website that has been blocked that the Lead DSL has risk assessed and allowed.
As a school we regularly check that our filtering system is working on school devices and that Google ‘Safe Search’ and the ‘Restricted Mode’ on YouTube is on and cannot be turned off by users.
If you require any further information about our Web filtering or content control please contact:
Mr Horsburgh
IT Network Manager
Age limits for popular games
Just like films, game console and online games have an age rating system. PEGI (Pan European Game Information) is the website to go to (https://pegi.info/) where you can search for information on games. This site gives two levels of information: age ratings (3,7,12,16 and 18 years old) and content descriptors (for example, bad language and violence). It is important you check the age rating of any game you buy for your child, either in a shop or online. Children at primary school should only be playing games rated for 3 and 7 year olds, and it is important that you resist the urge to allow your child to play a popular game meant for older children even if their friends are.
Internet filtering at home
It is important to set up internet filters so you can limit what your child can access via desktop computers, laptops, games consoles, smartphones and tablets. Internet Service Providers, such as BT, Virgin and Plusnet have network-based filters that cover all internet-enabled devices connected via the Wi-Fi in your home.
For example, search ‘bt internet filters’ to get advice on how to set this up if BT.
WARNING: These filters only allow you to control what is used through your Wi-Fi, they do not control what you child might view on their smartphone via any data plans on their phone. You will need to set up parental controls on their phone for this.
The link below is a safe and free tool for checking whether your Internet Provider’s filter blocks the following content: Child Sexual Abuse, Terrorist content and Pornography websites. It takes about 10 seconds and gives you an easy to read report.
Parental Controls
You can also set up passwords on your children’s smartphones so, for example, you have control over downloading apps and also on any tablet or desktop you have. You can also do this on games consoles, such X Box and PlayStation.
This website provides excellent step by step guides.
https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/
Here are links as to how to set up parental controls for some TV channels.
BBC iPlayer - Parental Controls
Netflix Privacy and Safety Checklist - swgfl.org.uk
Freeview channels on TV can also be blocked so your child cannot access inappropriate channels and content.
Here are also some videos on different devices.
Windows 10: Managing User Accounts and Parental Controls
If you are interested in learning more about this topic, please visit our site at http://www.gcflearnfree.org/windows10 to view the entire tutorial on our website. It includes instructional text, informational graphics, examples, and even interactives for you to practice and apply what you've learned.
Samsung Galaxy Tab - Setup Kids Mode
Kids mode allows your child to safely use your Galaxy Tab. Using Parental control you can set daily playtime limits, protect your child from inappropriate content and download apps from the Kids store for storybooks, learning and playing. To find out more about the Tab 4 visit http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobile-devices/tablets/tab/SM-T230NZWABTU
How to Setup Parental Controls on an Apple iPad
Setup some basic parental controls on your iPad before you share it with the children. Tony Anscombe will show you how to lock down certain aspects of your Apple iPad so your kids won't have access to things like in-app purchases, web browser, and the ability to add/remove apps. view it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM8e7OvcWo4&t=54s
Sexting
One of the dangers of smartphones, is that it is very easy and quick to take photos and share them online. Sexting, sharing explicit photos online of yourself or others, is a huge issue at secondary school and this issue is happening with ever younger children. Please share this powerful video with your children, and teach them about the dangers of Sexting
NSPCC: I saw your willy - YouTube