E-Safety
UPDATE 11/12/24: HAVE YOU SEEN OUR LATEST ONLINE SAFETY UPDATE NEWSLETTER? Click here.
Do you know your Fortnite from your TikTok?
Is your child's location visable to other users when they use their phone or device?
If your child used a secret app to "hide" photos, could you find them?
Do you know who is talking to your child in the game they are playing?
What on earth does the school teach my child to try to keep them save online? What can I do as a parent?
Do you feel pressured into letting your child access games and apps you'd rather they didn't?
Was life a bit easier when they were happy with CBeebies but now it's all a bit more scary?
Children's digital lives can be a challenge. A constant fight over screen time. Children demanding devices because "all their friends have one". Realising you've allowed your child on something maybe they shouldn't be on but not really knowing how to go into "reverse". Trying to understanding a myriad of parental settings. Not really understanding how the game your child loves works. Not knowing your ghasts from your snow golems (that's a Minecraft reference if you're lost). The list of confusion can seem never ending!
Being a digital parent can feel like hard work - but we are on the same side. It has been a privilege to be the online safety lead at Westfield for over a decade, overseeing a constantly evolving digital landscape for children. We all want our children to thrive online whilst also being kept safe from the dangerous side of the web. Blocking, restrictions and family settings all play a part, but we also need to be prepared for our children to learn the skills required to be able to survive knowing the correct behaviours when we're not there to supervise their every click, tap or swipe online. It's a long journey to that independence but small age-appropriate steps help alomg the way.
More and more parents are becoming aware of how collectively as a society we seem to be pushing children down a digital road earlier and earlier, into a world that is often not designed with children, particularly young children, in mind. Even basic tasks like going shopping or saving in a bank account can often require technology that in the past they didn't, and children are losing key milestones of independence if they don't have access to a screen. This isn't particularly fair.
In a survey of our Year 6 pupils in October 2024, almost two thirds (65%) said that they think they spend too much time on a screen sometimes - showing an awareness that they are unable to self-regulate their usage.
In school we have monitoring and tracking in place, a robust e-safety curriculum, and we are able to discuss appropriateness online where issues arise, involving parents where necessary. We also have our learning platform where pupils can begin to learn safe social communication with peers, through email, blogs and discussion forums where no one is using algorithms to constantly push content at them, track their usage, scan their photos and read their messages to target adverts and track their behaviour and movements to sell valuable data to the highest bidder. Digital skills can be acquired without the need to sell our children's data to commercial operators.
Without a doubt, the single question I have been asked the most by parents on the issue of online safety is when should they get a phone for their child. Organisations like KIDS FOR NOW and Nip in the Bud have been providing support and resources for parents to support a smartphone free childhood in recent years, and the recent growth of the Smartphone Free Childhood grassroots parent campaign more recently is designed to make sure parents do not feel on their own or isolated by trying to keep their child smartphone free for longer. It's certainly generated more talk about online safety than I have ever managed! Around 1,800 (and growing) Cambridgeshire families have already signed their Smartphone Free pact. You and your child are certainly not on their own if you are sticking to being smartphone free for longer.
Many parents are looking back on their decision to let their child have a phone at a young age with regret. Certainly this video is worth 7 minutes of your time to raise a few issues you may need to consider.
The American Social Psycologist Johnathan Haidt makes some compelling evidence-based arguments based on his experience of the American education system in his book The Anxious Generation which you can read about here, or buy here, or request to borrow from the town library here or you could even ask to borrow my copy!
As a school we are here to do our best to support all parents in the digital choices they make for their family. Please do get in touch if you would like to make any comments or suggestions about what we do, or if you'd like some help or support with your digital parenting.
We always aim to be helpful, realistic and informative to equip parents to nurture resilience and responsibility in their children's online lives.
Stuart Wilkinson
Online Safety Lead
Our Online Safety Lead, Mr Wilkinson, will be leading a parent safety meeting in the spring term of 2025 explaining what we cover in the Westfield E-safety curriculum and will provide some useful advice on how to help guide your child through the digital world they are growing up in. It would be great to hear from anyone who has any particular issues or concerns they would like to see covered. If you're a parent advocate of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign and would like a moment in the meeting to speak to other parents let us know.
Some of the parental feedback from previous meetings
"Thank you so much. Don't apologise for taking so long, It was all worth it."
"It's great to see what the school teach - I am really impressed."
"I have learned a lot"
Feeback is always welcome as we constrantly try to improve our support to parents.
We really are here to support you in encouraging your children to become confident digital learners.
We are all learning all the time at how we can get much better at this.
Some important links to online safety resources:
ParentZone: Down to earth support for parents and families online Home | Parent Zone
Internet Matters: Visit internetmatters.org for easy to access guides to platforms, devices and apps.
CEOP's website for parents, carers, teachers and children CEOP Education (the PlayLikeShare resource is on the 8-10 section)
(this website was formally called ThinkUKnow and has been rebranded but the content remains the same)
National Online Safety searchable collection of information posters about different apps E-safety Guides for Schools | National Online Safety
National College Online Safety for Parents Course Online Safety for Parents of Children aged 7-11 | National Online Safety (free sign up required)
Setting up Microsoft Family (for Windows devices) Microsoft Family Safety
Google Family Link (for Android and Chromebooks) Google Family Link - Home
Apple Family Sharing (for iOS devices) Family Sharing - Apple (UK)
Changing your router password (examples for Sky, BT and Virgin) How to change your wireless router password – Which Computing Helpdesk (consult your router user guide or ISP for specific information)
If your ISP doesn't offer blocking options you can always use a free service such as OpenDNS to block nastiness at router level. You just need to be confident in logging in to your router and changing a few numbers in the settings. You can use a simple service that automatically blocks adult content, or signup for a free account and choose what to block, which could include gambling, social media etc. Find out more here: Home Internet Security | OpenDNS
BBC Own It Own It - A place to help you boss your life online - Own It - BBC
Childnet Parent and Carer Resource Kit Parent and Carer Toolkit - Childnet
UK Safer Internet Centre https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/
http://www.safetynetkids.org.uk/personal-safety/online-safety/
NSPCC Keeping children safe online | NSPCC
Smartphone Free Childhood (grassroots parental campaign group)
Smartphones and Social Media Factsheet from Nip In The Bud
Two great videos on getting a smartphone for children:
Compelling reasons to delay getting a smartphone
Establishing ground rules when it is time to say yes
Podcast: How Can I Move towards a Smartphone Free childhood?