Categories
Online Safety Parents Resources

ParentZone report – Gaming or gambling…

Parentzone have a new video and pack to help families and schools address online gambling through simple gaming called ‘Gaming or gambling‘.  It’s part of their getting ready for the Christmas break resources!

Parentzone_gamingorgambling.png

Watch their video below and download the FREE information pack at https://parentzone.org.uk/gaming-or-gambling

Categories
Curriculum Resources

New resources for 4-7 Year Olds from Think-U-Know

The long awaited replacement for ‘Lee and Kim’s Animal Magic Adventure’ for Key Stage 1 pupils is now available at think-u-know

JessieAndFriends

Jessie & Friends, is a new online safety education resource for 4-7 year olds from CEOP.

Based on a series of three fun, age-appropriate animations, Jessie & Friends follows Jessie, Mo and Tia as they view, share and game their way towards a safer future online.

The animations are accompanied by:
– a catchy song, storybooks and posters
– a detailed resource pack with engaging learning activities on key topics including trust, consent, and healthy and unhealthy online behaviours, plus guidance on safe and effective delivery of Jessie & Friends
– advice for parents and carers on using Jessie & Friends to start a positive, age-appropriate online safety conversation with their child

Jessie & Friends has been awarded the PSHE Association Quality Mark in recognition of the high-quality, safe learning opportunities it provides.

Information is available for parents at https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/jessie-and-friends/

Teachers will need to log in to think-u-know to access the new resources.

Categories
Advice Parents

Children’s data

Do you know about all of the data that’s share about your children?  Take a look at this report from the Children’s Commissioner and start thinking about how and where your child’s data is leaking!

https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/childrens-data/

Categories
News

Pre-schoolers are watching more online video, says study from Childwise

BBC covered the expensive report from Childwise which polled over 1000 parents for details on their pre-schooler’s internet use.  The key facts are available from the BBC at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45738280

Categories
eSafety News

Save the Date: Safer Internet Day 2019, Tuesday 5th February

SID2019
Each year Safer Internet Day gets bigger and bigger, with 45% of young people hearing about the day in 2018. As the UK Safer Internet Centre, which organises the day, we are very excited about Safer Internet Day (SID)2019 which will take place on Tuesday 5th February 2019, with the global theme of ‘Together for a better internet’.

Categories
Advice Reporting

Advice from Childnet International and links to report online issues

Childnet has a dedicated page https://www.childnet.com/resources/how-to-make-a-report where you can click a link to make a report about any issue you have on a range of online platforms.  It’s a great starting place is you are experiencing issues…

Categories
Advice eSafety Online Safety Parents

The Social Media Conversation…

So you’ve caved in to pressure from your child and either ‘handed-down’ an old Smart phone or purchased one specially.  From my own personal experience this seems to be around the 11th birthday certainly with children around here.

The next question (if it hasn’t already arisen) is “Can I get… (insert current social media phenomenon here)?

All the organisations say the WORST thing you can do is just say no.  We know this closes doors and often leads to children going behind their parents backs to get onto social media meaning we also cut off the main avenue for support for those same children if anything goes wrong.

I read a recent article which included some great prompts for parents to use when having this difficult conversation.

Take a look at this article on “Common Sense Media”.

Categories
News Online Safety

Yubo

Yubo is a chat app which used to be called “Yellow – Make New Friends”.  It is a social media app for iOS and Android devices which children are starting to engage with.  Through the app users create a profile, share their location, and flip through images of other users in their area.   It’s been called the “Tinder for Snapchat“.

According to the app’s Terms & Conditions it’s for ages 13+ (because of the COPA law) however because of the HIGH levels of sexual content and availability of location details sites such as Common Sense Media have recommended it for 18+ and even their children reviewers suggest it is for 17+.

Netaware also have a review of the app and go with the app’s own rating of 13+, but emphasise the sexual nature of the app and the high risk of exposure to drink, drug and crime!

 

 

Categories
News

Fortnite

Fortnite is becoming a widespread talking point which many parents and schools are being drawn into.  If you’ve not come across it before it’s what’s known as a ‘first-person shooter’!  It’s very addictive and unlike many of its predecessors it runs on smart phones and tablets.   Children can be drawn into playing it for long times and can play collaboratively or alone.  Collaborative playing does feature contact with other players through chat which can lead to exposure to grooming and bullying online.

Lots of organisations have great information on Fortnite including  https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/fortnite
The NSPCC has information for families – https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-games-helping-children-play-safe/
as does Internet Matters – https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/online-gaming/
and Childnet – http://www.childnet.com/resources/online-gaming-an-introduction-for-parents
If you want a sensational take on Fortnite then head over to the Sun!
There are not really specific resources for schools that address online gaming directly but the new Google offering https://beinternetlegends.withgoogle.com/en-gb/  might be of some use to schools.
Categories
eSafety Online Safety

Be Internet Awesome

There are new resources from Google to help children understand how to behave online.  The resource is called ‘Be Internet Awesome‘ and is available at https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/.  The resource includes fun online games around the themes of sharing (or not) online, spotting fake information and news, knowing when to and not to share secrets such as personal information and login details, how to behave in a kind way online and most importantly when to be brave and talk to someone else about an issue.