Online Safety
We all need to use the internet safely and sensibly. To help you gain a better understanding of this we have provided some links to web resources that deal with this subject. In particular, students must remember to use internet chat responsibly. As a School, we have developed the following guidelines for our students which you may find useful.
- Don't give out personal details, photographs, or any other information that could be used to identify you, such as information about your family, where you live or the school you go to.
- Don't take other people at face value - they may not be what they seem.
- Never arrange to meet someone you've only ever previously met online without first telling your parents/carers, getting their permission and taking a responsible adult with you. The first meeting should always be in a public place.
- Always stay in public areas of chatrooms where there are other people around.
- Don't open an attachment or download files unless you know and trust the person who has sent it.
- Never respond directly to anything you find disturbing - save or print it, log off and tell an adult.
The main four online risks can be summarised as:
- Conduct: children may be at risk because of their own behaviour, for example, by sharing too much information. This might attract unsafe people, or might damage your reputation, with long term consequences.
- Content: age-inappropriate or unreliable content can be available to children
- Contact: children can be contacted by bullies or people who groom or seek to abuse them
- Commercialism: young people can be unaware of hidden costs and advertising in apps, games and websites; this also includes phishing and scams
A copy of our Online Safety Policy can be found under the Safeguarding section of our Policies area of the website.
Although there are further links on the 'Health and Wellbeing' & 'Parent Resources' pages of our website, the following links are really useful sites which give you the latest online safety information. More importantly, it offers a safe place to report if you feel uncomfortable or worried about someone you may be chatting to online.
