Online Safety

Be Internet Wise 

The online world is ever-changing, making it a challenge to keep up to speed with what children are doing. Below are some useful websites that provide a whole host of ways to keep your child safe online.  Below are resources that can help you navigate this demanding online world.

Child safety on Fortnite

Fortnite is an online video game in a post-apocalyptic world. To play, the age recommendation is 12 and above due to ‘mild violence’, although you don’t have to provide your age when creating an account, so younger children can still log on easily. 

We advise that you: 

  • Use the parental controls on the gaming device 
  • Visit the website ‘Ask about games’ for links to detailed instructions on the device your child uses – the site covers Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Apple and Android phones, and Nintendo Switch. 

https://aag.ukie-website-prod.etchplay.com/parental-controls

 Make sure your child knows how to report inappropriate behaviour. You or your child can report players who make them uncomfortable using the in-game feedback tool (located in the main menu). 

We advise you to check user agreements for all apps and games that your children have access to. This will ensure that content is age appropriate, and that children will not be exposed to graphic or adult content.

Online Safety is an important part of keeping children safe at Our Lady’s Bishop Eton Catholic Primary School. We have extensive security measures in place in school, which are monitored both internally and externally, to help safeguard pupils from potential dangers or unsuitable material. Any online safety incidents are recorded and managed per our online safety policy. 

Online safety is taught to all pupils explaining and demonstrating how to stay safe and behave appropriately online. Online safety is taught every half term over the year.  However, we can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with parents to ensure the Online Safety message is consistent. Parents must speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online. It’s essential to be realistic – banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use is essential. 

Search engines 

Please note that no search engine is ever 100% safe but below are some links to some “safer” search engines: 

  • Swiggle Safe search engine for KS2 
  • Kiddle
  • DuckDuckGo is an internet search engine that you can download which includes a web browser and a Google Chrome extension. It was made not only to promote internet safety but also for privacy. If you just use their website, it is a good filter for inappropriate content.

Google also offers a safer search option for children searching on the Internet. Image searching 

Gaming 

When children are accessing games via Xbox LIVE, privacy settings can be set up. 

Safety settings and features on YouTube

1. Supervised Experience

A supervised experience YouTube account is available for under 13s with a Google account managed by Family Link. This can help manage how they use the app.

This will give you access to content settings and parental controls to help you manage what channels they can subscribe to and how long they spend on the app.

For information on how to set this up visit YouTube’s advice page.

2. Restricted Mode

This helps to filter out inappropriate videos. However, it’s not 100% effective due to the volume of videos on the platform.

To enable this feature go to ‘Settings’. Click the drop down menu at the bottom of the screen and select ‘Restricted Mode: Off’. Change the option to ‘On’ and press ‘Save’.

3. Custom password

You can set up a custom passcode to stop your child from accessing your parental controls and making changes. To do this, tap the lock icon, and choose ‘Set my own passcode’.

4. Set videos to private

If your child posts their own videos on YouTube you might want to speak to them about setting the content they upload to private so only their subscribers or followers can view their videos. Remember to talk to your child about who is allowed to follow or subscribe to their channel.

To do this you need to go to ‘Library’ and select ‘Your Videos’. Then select ‘More’ and ‘Visibility’. You can then choose from the following options:

Public – everyone, including those who don’t have a YouTube account, can see the video.
Private – only subscribers can watch.
Unlisted – this makes the video private so no one can see it unless they have a direct link to the video.

5. Auto-play
Auto-play stops videos from automatically playing after one has ended. This will stop your child from watching videos suggested to them by the app.  To turn this on, go to the watch screen on any video. Then tap the auto-play switch so it says ‘Off’.

6. Create playlists
You can create playlists on YouTube to help manage the videos your child can watch. We recommend watching videos before your child does to make sure they’re appropriate and then adding them to a new playlist.

To add a video to a playlist select ‘Save’ at the bottom of the video you want to add. Select the playlist you want to add it to or choose ‘create new playlist’.

Is YouTube Kids safer?

YouTube Kids is a separate app and website created by YouTube that offers more filters and restrictions to help stop children coming across inappropriate content.  There are also additional parental control features available depending on your child’s age. You can choose between three age-based content settings:

  • Preschool (Ages 4 and under)
  • Younger (Ages 5–8)
  • Older (Ages 9–12)

You can create individual user profiles for more than one child.  While the platform uses a range of different filters to stop adult content from playing, these aren’t always 100% effective. We always recommend supervising your child when they’re watching videos or watching them to make sure they are suitable.  There are also no communication features available.

CEOP (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) 

CEOP delivers a multi-agency service dedicated to tackling the abuse and exploitation of children in the real and ‘e’ world. Often it is referred to as an online 999. By clicking on the button, young people and parents can get advice on a range of issues such as viruses, hacking and dealing with bullying online.

Vodafone has produced lots of material and advice about online safety.  There are lots of videos about a wide range of issues that are well worth watching

 

Digital Parenting Magazine informs parents about the various technologies children are accessing today. There is information on Facebook settings, Xbox360 settings, and much more ‘How to Guides’. Well worth a read! 

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/newscentre/smart-living/digital-parenting/

Think-U-Know

The “Think-U-Know” website is brought to you by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre. 

Kidsmart 

Kidsmart gives you lots of advice on how to stay safe online. 

Parent Info 

This is a free service for schools. Here you’ll find a collection of articles, tips, expert advice and resources designed to help parents keep up with what their children are doing online. Parent Info is a collaboration between The Parent Zone which has been providing information and support to parents for a decade, and CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) command of the National Crime Agency. 

Why not invite your child to play interland, an online safety based game by Google that is situation based. It will help your child to approach different issues online.

The Safer Internet site also provides advice on setting up parental controls on your home computer. 

https://saferinternet.org.uk/

NSPCC 

Parent online information website NSPCC Keeping children safe online is a great concern for parents. The NSPCC’s Share Aware provides straightforward, no-nonsense advice for parents of 8 to 12-year-old children. #ShareAware was mentioned more than 10,000 times on Twitter, during the first month of its campaign in January 2015. The NSPCC will continue to challenge and work with internet companies and the Government to make the internet a safer place for children.