The designated Online Safety governor is Mark Wilde.

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The Online Safety Policy is available here

 

Children today embrace new technologies as a source of information, education and entertainment. The use of digital technology is completely normal and integrated into their daily lives. Their confidence and skills in using this technology is typically high, but their knowledge and awareness of the inherent issues, risks and dangers is usually very low.  It is important that children understand the online world and know how to use online technologies responsibly.

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Children and young people need to be empowered to keep themselves safe – this isn’t just a top down approach.  Children will be children - pushing boundaries and taking risks. Teaching your child about technology should be seen as another part of keeping them safe, just like crossing the road or learning to swim.

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At Greystones, we are committed to discussing these issues but we can only be successful if we all work together.  As a parent, you may be making a concerted effort to stay in the loop, but many parents feel that they are out of touch with the dangers faced by their children on tablets, smartphones and other online enabled devices and that their children know more about it than they do!

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Recent studies found that 90% of the parents surveyed said they had spoken to their children about staying safe online, most said they allowed their children to use the internet unsupervised and just over 20% of parents do not monitor what their children are doing online. Almost one in five children said they had seen something online that had upset them.

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Without using controls such as built-in security, safety and privacy features and filters, children will almost certainly run into something that really isn't appropriate for them.  It is vital to remember though that even with these measures in place, children may go somewhere else on the internet where access is completely open so it is important to spend time with your children online, browse together and keep an open dialogue so if they do encounter a problem they will come to you for advice.

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