Education is widely given as the most important element of e-Safety and this message has recently been reinforced by Peter Davies, the chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection, in an interview published at Public Service.co.uk

Davies is quoted as saying  that education is vital to keep children safe on-line.

“It essential that every child in this country receives and appropriate level of internet education,”.

The article states that Davis accepts that children will always be exposed to some risk on the internet. and quotes him as saying:

“Ultimately their safety will to a large extent depend on their understanding of the risks, their confidence and knowledge of how to take control of those risks, and something for them to do if they have got real concerns.“

Davis wants on-line safety taught to the youngest of children and argues that it is just as important as teaching them safety when crossing the road.

Training courses are available via the ChildProtectionCompany.com aimed at teachers and parents.  By educating adults about e-Safety and how to keep children safe, the e-Safety message can then be passed onto children. For more information on e-Safety training courses click here.

At the ChildProtectionCompany.com we very much welcome all feedback;  hearing what customers think of our products helps us to continually improve our online training courses.

We have had a lot of schools use our e-Safety for schools training course over recent months and here are some of the comments we have received on this training course:

Very good – gave me more confidence, knowing I had a good understanding of e-Safety.

NM, Thomas Ferens Academy.

I found the training very useful in my role as ICT coordinator. It will serve as a basis for reviewing our e-Safety education looking at what is already in place and making changes as appropriate to ensure that our safeguarding is the best it can be.

MB, Christow Primary School.

I thought this course was excellent – easy to use and easy to understand. Thank you.

CA, Sponne School.

The e-Safety course was useful and now needs to be used to embed practice in school systems and as part of our wider training within school.  Another good course.

GD,Campion School.

e-Safety awareness is a life skill which needs to be taught to children from a young age; just like children are taught about road safety awareness they need to learn how to use the internet safely.  With access to the internet all around us, with its endless opportunities and risks, it is important that children learn how to differentiate what is:

• good and bad
• safe and risky
• true and untrue
• appropriate and inappropriate.

As with road safety its never too early to start learning these e-Safety lessons and never too late to keep reinforcing them –  just as you may still remind your teenager not to have both earphones in and his music on too loud whilst riding his bike into town.  Conversations about e-Safety need to be ongoing both at home and at school.

An article on  BBC news looks at some of the figures around e-Safety incidents with children and how online abuse is now said to be our biggest child protection issue.

Ofsted are now inspecting e-Safety practice within schools.  New guidance for Ofsted inspectors was published in September 2012 and is available here. The guidance highlights what Ofsted inspectors will be looking for are with regards to e-Safety in schools and this includes:

1. Evidence that all school staff have received annual e-Safety training.
2. A whole school approach to e-Safety.
3. The involvement of parents and families to continue the e-Safety message at home.
4. A clear e-Safety strategy with up to date polices.
5. A move to managed systems where children are taught to identify and manage e-Safety risks.

The ChildProtectionCompany.com have two online courses available to help schools fulfill their e-Safety responsibilities:

• The e-Safety Level 1 online training course is designed for teachers and all school staff and it enables schools to quickly and easily fulfil Ofsted’s requirement for all staff to receive at least annual e-Safety training.
• The Parents e-Safety course is an excellent way to engage and involve parents in the e-Safety message. This course is written to raise parents and carers awareness of e-Safety, equipping then to reinforce e-Safety practice in the home.

For more details please see our e-Safety for Schools page

An online e-safety training course designed specifically for schools is now available. It is designed to provide you with the e-Safety knowledge to help keep the children you are responsible for, and yourself, safe when using modern technology. In today’s high tech world e-Safety awareness and management is a vital part of an organisation’s safeguarding practice.

Meeting the requirements of Ofsteds publication  Inspecting e-Safety (Sept 2012) and written by a leading e-Safety expert, the e-Safety course covers:

• The different types of technology children are using today
• e-Safety risks to children
• Cyberbullying, sexting, grooming, social media.
• The importance of educating and empowering children
• How to identify and reduce safety risks to yourself
• How to deal with e-Safety incidents

At the end of the course there is a short assessment to test understanding and on successful completion of this assessment you will be awarded a certificate valid for one year.

To learn more or to purchase the e-safety training course please follow this link.

As part of Ofsteds safeguarding inspections of schools inspectors will be asking if teachers and school staff have had training in e-Safety.

“How do you ensure that all staff receive appropriate online safety training that is relevant and regularly up to date?”

Ofsted Inspecting e-Safety, Sept 2012

The ChildProtectionCompany.com now provides an easy to use on-line e-Safety course specifically designed for the education sector.  The course includes an introduction to e-Safety and raises awareness of:

• The different types of technology
• The risks to children
• The importance of educating and empowering children
• The risk to you
• How to deal with e-Safety incidents

For more information see the e-Safety pages on our website.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new e-Safety for Parents training course.  If you’re a parent or carer and are concerned about how to keep your children safe online then this is the course for you.

The course has been written by a leading e-Safety expert who has on the ground experience of working with many schools. It covers the key elements of e-Safety and what the risks are to children; including the Internet predator, sexting, social networking and cyberbullying. It also provides information on how you, as a parent, can help reduce these risks and what you should do if a problem occurs.

From September, 2012, one of the questions that Ofsted will now be asking schools is:

“How does the school educate and support parents and whole school community with online safety?”

The e-Safety for Parents course is an ideal way of solving this.  Click here for further details.

e-Safety is not about ICT – it is about safeguarding children

Learning to drive is not about knowing the internal workings of a combustion engine; the same is true of e-safety.  Many shy away from e-safety thinking that they don’t have the technical knowledge to understand it.  Technology is not the problem (although arguably it is an enabler). Technology does not cause problems; behaviour, risk taking and lack of awareness cause problems.  e-Safety is about safeguarding the child.

If you’d like to know more have a look at our online e-Safety training course.

The age of the Internet has resulted in an explosion of digital communications technologies. The outcomes of this cannot be understated: the ability to carry out an operation from another part of the world; navigate a car using satellite technology previously only available to the military; remotely search for trapped persons after a disaster; talk for free with relatives on the opposite side of the world.

These same digital technologies have also transformed education, not just for use within ICT but also for every curriculum subject: using Google maps in Geography; collaborative working in English; digitally studying the human body in science and much more.

Unfortunately the free and easy use of digital communications, has also meant there are risks and dangers to both children and adults and these cannot be underestimated.

Our online e-safety training course will introduce you to some of these risks and help you to understand where these risks come from.

In the same way we teach our children how to cross the road safely and how to swim, it is imperative that we also teach children how to stay safe online. It is not sufficient to show the children a video or two and expect this to suffice; e-safety is partly about empowering the children; most importantly we should teach this as a life skill. The earlier children understand this life skill the more beneficial it will be.

Would you teach your child to drive if you can’t drive yourself? The same is true of e-safety. Everybody must understand this life skill; this includes all staff, voluteers, governing bodies and parents/guardians. In order to empower others and to be able to risk assess for yourself, you also need to have a good understanding of the risks and dangers.

The above is taken from the overview of the online e-Safety course provided by ChildProtectionCompany.com.