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Good afternoon, We spoke to a small group of children today who had been involved in a 'Whatsapp' incident. The incident included lots of inappropriate language, hateful comments and messages inciting violence. Many of the children involved felt worried or upset, and a few of the children involved informed their adults at home. We initially spoke to the whole class of year 6 students about Internet Safety, and as always the children gave the 'right' answers about what to do, and what not to do. We then asked them to put their hands up honestly, if they were still intending on using apps and games that were too old for them when they got home tonight. Pretty much every student put their hands up to say that they would continue.
We knew that this would be the case. We can't expect children who are 10/11 years old, or less to be responsible for ensuring that their own tablets, phones and other devices are safe for them to use. It's up to us adults to put on the right parental controls, and monitor their devices weekly to keep them safe. It's important that local parents and guardians understand the risks behind different apps and games, so that we can reduce these risks.
After speaking to many local parents and guardians however, many people avoid sorting this out for their child as they don't know what to do or where to start. This post is not to judge parents and guardians, but to offer support. Technology is constantly evolving, and there is so much expectation on parents in the real world, let alone now also to be experts on the world wide web. So please keep the comments kind, we're all learning.
We want our local community to feel empowered to know how to keep their children safe online, and how to use parental controls to reduce risks.
Here are some useful links to help you -
- Technology settings and parental controls - https://orlo.uk/Kd1uh
- Help young people to learn about the internet - https://orlo.uk/8uHkR
- Preventing online child s*xual exploitation - https://orlo.uk/6VYHA
- Privacy and privacy settings - https://orlo.uk/yt8MM
- Sharing illegal content - https://orlo.uk/O7fJo
- Being share aware - https://orlo.uk/xIS5O
- Not everyone online is who they say they are - https://orlo.uk/iKQn8
- Supervising your child online - https://orlo.uk/rraB1
- S*xual extortion - https://orlo.uk/M9MTk
- What are the signs of online child s*xual exploitation - https://orlo.uk/jP6ej
- Social networking and meeting people - https://orlo.uk/wgZe7
- Live streaming - https://orlo.uk/2mtUv
- Building safe online habits - https://orlo.uk/ecTwJ
- IMs, DMs and chat - https://orlo.uk/mp2Wg
Share with other parents, start the conversation on the school pick up, meet other parents and make a date of it to sort this together. Just please don't leave your child to use these apps and games without the safety features in place.
Stay safe. PCSO Lizzie Jolley 22582
#crewepolice #pcsojolley22582 | 
