At St Matthew's we understand that the internet is an integral part of 21st century living and that many of our pupils and their families engage in online activity on a daily basis. We pride ourselves on safeguarding pupils, parents and the wider community and aim to provide the most up to date online safety guidance to help our families stay safe online. You can view our Online Safety policy here.
General advice:
- Never give out your personal information online.
- Evaluate the validity of content before accessing a website.
- If you come across unacceptable content or contact with another user, report it immediately using the report abuse button.
- Use privacy settings, pop up blockers and parental filters to limit inappropriate content available through your devices.
- Advice guidelines suggest that computing devices are best used by children in a family room.
- Consider carefully your choice of privacy setting on social media sites. Did you know that the 'friend of friends' settings could open you up to a massive unknown auidence? For example, if you have 500 friends and each of those have 500 friends, you have a potential audience of 250,000 people.
- Talk about online safety as a familiy so that everyone feels comfortable with reporting any issues.
- Ensure that your child knows what to do if they come across something upsetting online. Our advice in school is minimise, report and tell an adult. This means that an adult can still safely view the content and block the site altogether.
- Ensure anti-virus protections are in place.
- Talk about age guidelines with your children and why they are there to protect them from inappropriate content or contact.
- Discuss good online conduct as a family; our message at St Matthew's is to use the internet respectfully and responsibly.
Tips for staying safe online:
· Make sure you keep new online friends strictly online. If someone you don't know asks to be your online friend you must ensure an adult knows about it.
· Know how to use the CEOP Button and how to report it to the CEOP Centre if you are concerned about someone’s online behaviour towards you.
