An article by BBC health reporter, Philippa Roxby, looks at how toddlers are interacting with and being influenced by technology; from the educational potential of touch screens to the claim that ‘children born today will have spent a full year glued to screens by the time they reach the age of seven.’

The article also discusses research which has found that how parents role model the use of technology is of importance and this affects how passive or engaged children are when using technology.

Children are using internet and digital devises from an increasingly young age and not enough research has yet been conducted, on how this is affecting the development of today’s children.  However what is clear is that its never too early to start educating children about e-Safety and how to use these devised safely.

A new guide to using the internet safely has been launched by actress Keeley Hawes in partnership with Childnet International.  The guide gives information on copyright,  how to spot pirate websites used for downloading music, film and TV content, how to download legally, parental controls and a useful jargon buster; explaining all the internet jargon in easy to understand language.

The new guide can be found at www.childnet.com

Other information on e-Safety is available via our e-Safety for Parents training course

A new application has been launched which allows parents to control how and when children use their mobile phones to access the internet and social media sites.

The app from AlphaBlue is currently available for Android and BlackBerry phones. Once the app is downloaded, on to a child’s phone, parents can then log on to the AlphaBlue website to set the level of control. These controls allow them to restrict their child’s use of the internet and social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, during set time periods such as during school hours, late evenings and overnight.

The AlphaBlue website says its goal is “to give parents peace of mind and to help keep children safe from exposure to grooming, the internet, cyber bullying, high phone bills, not going to sleep at night, (and) distraction from classwork or homework”.                               (source : www.orange.co.uk)

Apps like this can be useful tools for parents however they can not and do not replace the need for e-Safety education.  Knowledge on how to keep safe whilst using the internet and mobile phones remains the most important element of e-Safety.  Children need to learn the skills to keep themselves safe so they can transfer these skills to any situation, whichever devise they are using and whichever filters or controls are or are not in use.

For further information on learning how to help keep children safe online click here for details of our e-Safety for parents and e-Safety for schools training courses.

A survey commissioned by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has investigated what the British public are most concerned about on the internet.  The greatest area of concern was around images of child abuse with 83% of those surveyed saying they were worried about websites with child abuse content.  These concerns were closely followed by worries about terrorist material (73%) and violent pornography (63%). (Source BBC News)

Worryingly a lot of those surveyed did not know what to do if they were to come across such websites or who they should report them to.

The IWF has an online reporting form, where concerns about illegal and inappropriate internet content can be easily reported; both confidentially and anonymously.

If you are interested in learning more about keeping yourself or your children safe on line click  here for details of  our e-Safety training courses.

The e-Safety Conference hosted by the ChildProtectionCompany.com, last month, has received some great feedback from delegates. The conference theme was Ofsted and e-Safety in schools, with most of the attendees being teachers or ICT leads in schools.

Comments from delegates on how the day would help them improve their role included:

• In supporting other teachers and involvement of students
• Helped me identify what we need to do in our school to safeguard our children
• Gave an impetus to bring together e-Safety process into cohesive plan
• More confident to push different aspects of technology and see e-Safety as an enabler
• Raised awareness particularly of Ofsted and elements of good practice.
• Gave a greater understanding.  Able to inform rest of team and colleagues

Steve Dadd, Head Teacher, talked about how e-Safety has been tackled in his school and brought some of the students along to share their understanding of the issues.  This was a very well received session prompting lots of questions and discussion from the audience.

All delegates received a free trail of our e-Safety for schools and our e-Safety for Parents online courses. For more information on these training courses, and on how the ChildProtectionCompany.com can assist schools to gain outstanding e-Safety provision, click here to go to our e-Safety for schools pages.

Microsoft have been working with the UK government to improve e-Safety by making it easier to report suspicious activity and to access online safety advice.  A new app is now available from the Windows store which provides children and parents with access to educational videos and the latest online safety campaigns. The app also provides a means to reporting concerns of inappropriate online contact and content.

Nicola Hodson, general manager of Microsoft UK said ”This app will help parents keep talking with children about their online experiences and, if issues arise, offer meaningful support.”

Recent research by Internet security company ESET, found that many parents lack the confidence to talk about e-Safety with their children, feeling their children know more than they do.

Resources such as the windows app and the Parents e-Safety course from the ChildProtectionCompany.com, are designed to help parents understand e-Safety and feel confident to talk to their children and help them manage the risks of using the internet.

The Anti-bullying alliance have published a guide for parents – “Lets Talk about online relationships”.  The guide gives practical tips about helping children stay safe when using the internet to communicate with others.  Some of the tips include:

• Talk to your child about what it is to be a friend – explain the value of true friendship – such as trust, respect and kindness.
  
• Don’t be afraid of technology….let your child be in control by showing you the sorts of sites they like to visit to make friends, or to link up with friends and peers. Ask them to show you how you set the privacy settings or how you would block someone that is upsetting you.
• Talk to your child about bullying behaviour online and why it’s wrong. Explain that this includes passing on hurtful comments, photos or videos that someone else has sent to you. Ask ‘would you say that or show that to someone in the same room as you…’ and ‘if not why not’.

To see the full guide click here.

For further information on how, as a parent, you can learn about e-Safety and help to keep your child safe online follow this link to our e-Safety for Parents course.

We are delighted to report that yesterdays e-Safety conference entitled  e-Safety: Ofsted Inspections and Good Practice in your School was a great success.  Attended by teachers, ICT leads and safeguarding leads from schools and academy’s across the country a wealth of information was shared about the safe use of technology in education, and the good practice required to safeguard children and young people whilst meetings the requirements of Ofsted.

The opening Keynote presentation by Elaine Long, an experienced teacher, senior leader and Ofsted Inspector was an extremely useful insight into how Ofsted conduct their inspections, what they are looking for in terms of e-Safety and how schools can ensure they are best prepared for an inspection.

William Baldet  talked about his work with PREVENT ( the government strategy which seeks to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism) and explained how young people use the internet to learn about terrorism and gave a fascinating insight into this area of safeguarding.

A presentation by Alan Mackenzie, a leading e-Safety expert, looked at examples of how schools are using technology and detailed how to mitigate the risks to schools of using ICT across the curriculum. This theme was further enhanced by a talk from Stephen Dadd, a local head teacher and some of his students, about the issues they have faced in their school and how these have been tackled.

We would like to thank all the speakers and attendees for their participation and contributions in making the day such a success.

Today is the 10th Annual Safer Internet Day – a great opportunity to spread the word and think about the issues around e-Safety. This years theme is “Connect and Respect”, click  here to see our article on how digital citizenship is one way of teaching children to use the internet safely and with respect for others.

To learn more about e-Safety see details of our online e-Safety training here with two specific versions; one for parents and for one for teachers.

With Safer Internet Day 2013 (5th Feb) almost upon us Disney has announced the launch of its internet safety campaign, in association with Childnet and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Disney are hoping to engage children and parents by fronting the campaign with Ella Henderson, X-Factor contestant, along with some of the casts and characters of  the Disney Channel.

Children who use Disney’s Club Penguin game will have access to an e-Safety quiz.

For parents wanting to learn more about keeping their children safe on-line see details of our e-Safety for Parents course here