Online Safety

Text Speak! How much do you know? See if you can identify as many of the different text abbreviations as you can

What does it mean? Laugh Out Loud LOL Oh My God OMG By The Way BTW BRB GTG ATM POS PIR WTTP CD9 L(MIRL) Laugh Out Loud Oh My God By The Way Be Right Back Got To Go At The Moment Parent Over Shoulder Parent In Room Want to trade pics? Code 9 – Parent About Let’s Meet in Real Life

Objectives of this session Raise awareness of the potential risks of life online Provide you with tips for online safety at home

The Need to Raise Our Awareness Parents Children Bridging the gap of knowledge around the internet The Gulf of Internet Knowledge

Risks of using the internet & new technologies Content, i.e.: Exposure to inappropriate content, including online pornography, ignoring age ratings in games (exposure to violence associated with often racist language), substance abuse Lifestyle websites, for example pro-anorexia/self-harm sites Hate sites Content validation: how to check authenticity and accuracy of online content Contact Grooming Cyber-bullying in all forms Identity theft (including ‘frape’ - hacking Facebook profiles) and sharing passwords Conduct Privacy issues - including disclosure of personal information Digital footprint and online reputation Health and well-being - amount of time spent online (Internet or gaming) The internet is a fantastic resource and can stimulate learning for your child. The internet has many positives, but you need to remember it also carries risks.

Benefits of the internet Educational games and programmes Research information The opportunity to communicate with people from all around the world The opportunity to share resources and ideas with people that have the same interests Shopping around the world without leaving your computer

Our Advice to you Know what your children are doing online Ask them to teach you to use any applications Keep the computer in a family room - this means you can keep more control of what they do (i.e. Webcams) Learn how to check web history and engage with technology Monitor apps and messengers so that you are aware who and how your children are interacting with Here are some top tips for parents. The most important one is to keep the computer in a family room. Children will be less likely to be inappropriate if you are sitting behind them on the sofa watching TV! There is a huge gap between what children use the internet for, and what their parents think their children know about the internet. To bridge the gap, ask your children to show you what they are doing online. Ask them to explain to you about IM or chat rooms- it may be difficult at first, but persevere as it will be worth it! Also remind your children about the risks associated with sharing personal information- what is personal information? Who should they share information with- if anyone?

Our Advice to You Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends - personal information includes: their usernames email address mobile number and any pictures of themselves, If your child receives spam / junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them. Help them to understand the risks of what could happen if they send a picture of themselves via social media etc.

Alternative Kid Friendly Search Engines Kid Rex Squirrel Net Kidtopia

Parents guide to technology http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-and-resources/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-to-technology One of the things that parents can struggle with is information on particular devices that their children are using. The parents guide to technology has been designed to support parents in this area with information on smartphones, gaming devices and other internet enabled devices.