Page 35 - Parents' Handbook - Sept 2021

INTERNET SECURITY
We hope that the following guidelines will be of interest to parents. The internet is a wonderful thing but we must not be naïve about the dangers.
We work hard at school (in our controlled environment) to educate the children about the dangers of the web. We have very secure filters in place which mean that we can block out just about all unsavoury material and all the Social Networking sites known to us.
The children have more freedom with their computers at home and this is why we would like to alert you to certain pitfalls. We are particularly keen that parents monitor social networking sites at home. Children are not allowed, by law, to use these until they are 13 years old. Material put on these sites can only be erased with great difficulty and it is also a medium used sometimes by unsavoury adults to trap younger people. As a school, we have had no serious problems with the misuse, but many other prep schools have had extraordinary difficulties.
SOME TIPS AS RECOMMENDED BY CHILDNET...
» Keep your online computer in the living room, rather than in the child’s bedroom.
» Surf with your child frequently and talk about it. Discuss information shown there: it is a fantastic resource, but there is also a lot of inaccuracy.
» Use internet filtering software. The best home one is generally agreed to be NetNanny (www.netnanny.com). It costs about £30 and has versions for both Mac and PC.
» Ask your ISP about child-friendly settings.
» Discuss with your child the dangers of giving out personal details to register for sites. If a site has to be registered for, and it is worthwhile, make up another email address for this.
» Chat rooms are blocked at school but a child may well register for them at home. He or she has no real idea of who is actually communicating with them. It is difficult to stop this in a private place such as the bedroom and this is another reason for using a communal area for internet access.
» Be aware that most social networking sites are only open to 13-year-olds and over – children have to state their ages when registering. It is not possible to access any of these sites at Abberley as they are completely blocked.
» ‘Friends’ made online can seem very appealing to a young child; unfortunately, and dangerously, no-one knows who they actually are. Security settings on these sites must also be made tight.
» When your child reaches 13-years old and wants to open a Facebook page, then insist that you (as the parents) are a named ‘friend’ – this is an excellent way of monitoring your child’s page.
» There are serious issues concerning ‘cyber bullying’ amongst young people. Children
sign up to pages not really aware of the full implications of their actions. Once you have left your ‘fingerprint’ on such pages it is very hard to eradicate it and your child may well be called to task as a result.
LOOK AT THESE WEBSITES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
» www.thinkuknow.co.uk » www.childnet.com
» www.digizen.org
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