E-Safety - January 2016 | Highcliffe School

E-Safety - January 2016

E-Safety is a vitally important aspect of safeguarding our students both in and out of school.


Across both ICT lessons and the schools PSHE programme students receive input from trained specialists including from Dorset Police Safer Schools and Communities Team (SSCT).

 

We have also delivered a number of internet safety sessions directly to parents which have been well attended. Below you will find two articles from the Spring SSCT Parents newsletter.


Cyberbullying

Definitions:

Bullying is behaviour that hurts someone else, and it usually occurs over a long period of time.

Cyberbullying is bullying that is carried out via digital technology. It includes but is not limited to: sending threatening or abusive text messages; creating and sharing embarrassing images or videos; 'trolling' - the sending of menacing or upsetting messages on social networks, chat rooms or online games; excluding children from online games, activities or friendship groups; setting up hate sites or groups about a particular child; encouraging young people to self-harm; voting for or against someone in an abusive poll; creating fake accounts, hijacking or stealing online identities to embarrass a young person or cause trouble using their name; sending explicit messages, also known as sexting; pressuring children into sending sexual images or engaging in sexual conversations (NSPCC).

 

Signs and symptoms:

 

It can be very difficult to spot the signs that a child is being cyberbullied, and no individual sign will confirm that bullying is happening. Parents and professionals need to look out for signs such as changes in behaviour; becoming distressed or withdrawn; not wanting to go to school; sleeping or eating poorly; being secretive about use of their phone or tablet; or
having problems with friends. Cyberbullying, as with all bullying, can lead to mental health issues – if this seems to be the case, the young person should be seen by their GP.

 

How to help:

 

Try to help young people by talking to them about cyberbullying and make sure they know who to go to if they have problems. If they do have a problem, talk to them about what choices they have in dealing with the cyberbullying. The issue should usually be raised with the school (or other organisation) involved in the bullying. All schools must have robust anti-bullying policies and procedures, which includes dealing with cyberbullying. The young person may need some technical assistance to block bullies online or to make their accounts private. In addition, evidence of the bullying may need to be saved, for example as screenshots, or logs made to provide evidence.

Parents can also encourage the child to do activities they enjoy which can help build confidence, self- esteem and friendships.

 


 

Ask.fm

 

Ask.fm is an online question-and-answer site. Users can ask questions and respond to them, either by text or by posting videos, and they can do this anonymously.

 

Although, as part of its Terms of Service, the site asks that all users must be aged 13 or over, there is no age verification.

 

Ask.fm is similar to Twitter in the sense that you can choose to follow someone. Unlike Twitter, though, you can't find out who is following you - only the total number of your followers.

 

All profiles and posts on Ask.fm are open and can be searched via a search engine like Google or through the site's own search function.

 

The default setting is to allow anonymous questions but to avoid risk of online bullying, you can turn this off.

 

You can report a post or profile and you can block users from asking questions (but they can still follow you and the answers you post).

 

If you have signed up to Ask.fm through Facebook or are connected through the Ask.fm Facebook app, the questions and answers posted on your Ask.fm profile are posted to your Facebook profile.

 

Young people like ask.fm because of its anonymity and the ability to get peer help.
However, there have been a number of cases of people being bullied anonymously using ask.fm

 


If you have any concerns over your son/daughter's use of the Internet or e-Safety please get in contact with the school and we will answer questions, offer advice and undertake actions where appropriate.

 


Mr Downs and Mr Yapp


    Owned by: MDS | Last Published: 14/03/2016 09:13:22 | Next Update: NA


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