E-safety issues

Key messages for today

• Young people and ICT

• Relevant policies and legislation

• Issues and risks

• Role of the school/organisation

• Support available

• What do you need to do?

For young people ICT is not a novelty but the way they engage with their world - 21st century culture

• Communication via email, chat rooms and message boards, IM, SMS, weblogs, social networks, Skype, podcasting……..

• Entertainment – watching films on DVD, downloading music, playing games, taking, storage and retrieval of digital images.

• Education – research, word processing, data manipulation, modelling, design, creativity, recording thoughts

• Personal management – diary, appointment calendars and address books, alarm clock and personal reminders, finding the best party locations!

• Shopping• ...all at the same time!

What are the risks?

• Content - sexual, racist, violent unreliable/bigoted ie safety of children’s minds• Commerce - scams, phishing and pharming, bluejacking, downloads which

steal information - children’s and parents!• Contact - via interactive technologies – IM, chat, multiplayer games• Culture - bullying, camera phones, blogging, moblogging, social networking …..

• The ‘C’ of ICT is the most dangerous ie Communication which can lead to Contact

• Approx 40 - 50 cases in the last 4 -5 years compared to 500 serious road casualties per year!

• The biggest Internet danger is that we concentrate on the dangers and forget the benefits!

• Balance and perspective

Schools and parents should be raising awareness of:

• Internet safety – keeping personal information secret across all technologies – email, chat,

IM, mobile– bullying across all technologies including camera phones & blogs– people online may not be who they say they are

• Internet security– spotting copycats websites and scams– viruses and spam via email– if it looks to good to be true it generally is

• Media literacy– evaluating reliability/validity of information– copyright and plagiarism– P2P networks - allow anyone to publish videos and large files to anyone

who needs them eg Napster and Gnutella, music and porn!

Issues for schools and parents to consider

• Who is responsible for teaching e-safety?– In primary phase?– Whole-school issue of child safety not ICT!– Technological issues

• At what age should internet safety lessons start?• How can parents be involved?• What support is there in schools for teachers in the event of

a ‘disclosure’?• Advent of 3G and ‘mobile internet’• Protection for staff – AUP• Identifiable/contactable/pupil email addresses/images on

web sites• Accessing inappropriate web content at school• External issues being brought into school – eg cyberbullying

Educational resources - what help is available?Educational resources - what help is available? www.becta.org.ukwww.becta.org.uk/publications/publications

Primary:

• The Internet Proficiency scheme for KS2

• Smartsurfers for KS2

• Others…

Secondary:

• Signposts to Safety for KS3/4

• Childnet International -

‘Know IT All’ for KS3

• Think U Know

• Others….

Parents:

• Parentscentre

• KnowITAll for Parents

Concerns are shifting from what children are ‘downloading’ in terms of content to what they are ‘uploading’ to the net.

...no-one is safe!

What help is available for the Primary phase?What help is available for the Primary phase?

Education and training

• The Internet Proficiency scheme for KS2 (UK)

• Netsmartz (US)• Disney (US)• Faux Paw (US)• Internet Superheroes (US)• Smart Surfers (UK)• CBBC – Stay Safe (UK)• Hector Protector (NZ)

Know It Allwww.childnet-int.org/kia/

www.websafecrackerz.com/

Parentscentrewww.parentscentre.gov.uk/usingcomputersandtheinternet/