This week’s Online Safety post is about having conversations with your child about what they do online. For many of us, we see our online lives and offline lives as different, but children are growing up with technology and the internet and for them there isn’t a difference; online life and offline life is just life. Technology can move at an extraordinarily fast pace and it can be difficult to know how to start talking to your child about what they’re doing online, who they might be speaking to or discussing the potential risks and issues.
As a school, we all know from the 2John’s training about some of our children’s habits online as well as some of the potential dangers, which is why it is so important to talk to your child about being safe online and not being a ‘cliff-top parent’. The NSPCC have produced some excellent resources about how to start those conversations with your children and what to discuss in an age-appropriate way on this website: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/talking-child-online-safety/
A great ‘way in’ might be referencing the 2 John’s workshops that all children in Y1-6 had at Monteagle on Monday 12th September 2022.
The NSPCC recommends:
- Reassuring your child
- Try not to make it like an interview but more informal so that everyone is comfortable
- Ask about who they’re talking to (if they are online gaming) or using platforms that enable this
- Remind them about talking to strangers
Finally, this is just a reminder that the video from the parent training is only available for a short time (one more week) and we HIGHLY recommend that you watch it. The link has been sent on Parent Mail.
As always, if you require any further support, please contact the school office.
