Other useful resources
In addition to our online safety page, you can find some other useful online safety resources below:
Digital Parenting by Vodaphone
You can view their website here.
Their magazine here provides a guide to help you help your family live a happy and safe digital life.
You can find more information here on reporting and removing fake accounts and you can also find several more sources of support on their page.
How to deal with inappropriate content
Protecting children is at the heart of everything IWF do. For over 28 years, since the early days of the internet, their job has been to help child victims of sexual abuse by hunting down and removing any online record of the abuse. You can view their website here to see more about what they do, latest news and other useful resources.
The ICO is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights. You can visit their website here to find out more about their organisation and to find out about your personal data, staying private on social media and information rights including how to make a SAR, how to make an FOI request, domestic CCTV and data protection, protecting yourself against nuisance marketing and much more.
There has been a significant rise in legal but harmful material online. It can appear in many different forms and often takes us by surprise. It can be upsetting, disrespectful and even downright disgusting. There’s racism, hate speech, explicit pornography, suicide content, the list just goes on and on. But what may surprise us even more, is how often people find it. Have you ever seen something online and thought ‘How can they get away with that? Surely that’s illegal?’ Online sites, sometimes the most familiar websites we’re accustomed to are consistently keeping harmful material on their servers because it is technically classified as legal. Despite this, even if content is legal, that doesn't mean it isn't offensive. That's where Report Harmful Content comes in. You can download the 'Report Harmful Content button' here.
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The things I wish my parents had known…
'The things I wish my parents had known…' draws together advice from 16-21-year-olds on how parents should manage tricky conversations around sexual harassment and access to inappropriate content, including pornography. No child should have to stumble across harmful content online.
What to do if your child has seen something inappropriate online
Anybody can post and share videos, pictures, or ideas on social media. This means children may see things they don’t want to. Inappropriate content can be pictures, films, messages or posts which worry, scare or upset them. For example, content meant for older children or adults, sexual or violent content, or content which encourages your child to engage in dangerous behaviours. Some content is also illegal. This includes nude or semi-nude pictures of children and sexual messages to children.
You can read the blog from CEOP here to find out what to do if your child has seen something like this online.
What to do if your child has seen something upsetting online
Along with the many positive things which young people may see or experience online, they may also encounter things which may worry or upset them. This could be anything from a scary picture or hateful comment, to something which is intended for an adult audience or potentially even illegal content. You can read Childnet's blog here to find out what to do if your child has seen something like this online. You can read Childnet's guide here if your child has seen something like this.
As always, if you find that you would like any additional information on the details highlighted above, or if you think that you would benefit from being signposted to a different service, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the central IT team via the contact page here. Alternatively, you may wish to contact one of your school's DSLs (Designated Safeguarding Leads).