Parents Page

Cumbria Children’s Services, in conjunction with school staff, go to great lengths to keep your child safe whilst using the Internet in school. However, it is recognised by all the lead agencies, including the Department for Education & Skills, that using the Internet can never be 100% safe. Your school will have an Internet Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) in place that will outline to you and your children safe working practices and procedures for reporting any breaches in security etc.

If your child is upset by anything they have viewed on the Internet, or are the subject of bullying at school you should discuss the matter immediately with the head teacher.

Why do Schools Use the Internet?

The Internet is a huge invaluable resource that children use for:

Finding Information – Approximately 4 billion WebPages.

Contacting others – E-mail, Chat, instant messaging.

Online Games

Buying Online – Books, Games, CD’s, DVD’ etc

In addition to the above, changes in the way children learn have forced developments in accessing school work from home via an Internet connection – for example the newly launched BBC Digital Curriculum will contain over 120 GB of information and access to school computers from home will mean children can continue to study away from the school environment.

Unfortunately not everybody who publish websites or use the Internet do so with honest intentions and although they are a minority you should be aware of some of the potential hazards to children left alone to use the Internet at home.

Offensive Material – about 4.2 million pornographic websites, growing at an estimated rate of 18,000 daily.

Chat – 30% of children meet somebody new in chat rooms and alarmingly 8% of those go on to meet face to face.

Email – 1 in 4 children are being bullied via mobile phone or online via chat or blog sites.

What can you do to help?

You can help protect your children by following the simple steps below:

Keep a watchful eye on Internet use including E-mail & Chat

Check the history folder of your Internet browser to check what sites have been accessed

Use a child friendly search engine – Yahooligans or Ask Jeeves for Kids etc

Could use IE Content Supervisor – only blocks participating sites

Consider purchasing filter software – netnanny, cyberbloc etc

Consider using a different browser – Firefox?

Protect your PC with a firewall / Antivirus software – include spyware

Enable strict safe searching on search engines

Click HERE for a list of useful addresses

There is plenty of advice available on the Internet. The following links are a sample:

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)

An excellent site providing information on child abuse and other related issues. Parents and children are able to report attempts at grooming to the global taskforce.

Link - http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Childnet International

a non-profit organisation working with others to “help make the Internet a great and safe place for children”. The site contains excellent Internet safety information for parents and children.

Link - http://www.childnet-int.org/

National Children’s Charity (NCH)

Loads of useful information to help keep your children safe online.

Link - http://www.nch.org.uk/information/index.php?i=134