Safegaurding Spotlight - December 2020

Online safety

Welcome to the first edition of Spotlight on Safeguarding. The aim of this newsletter is to highlight safeguarding issues. If you have any questions about the contents of the newsletter please contact school and ask to speak to one of the Safeguarding team.

We hope you find the newsletter informative and if there are any topics you’d like us to cover please contact school. The newsletter will be issued every half term.

I would like to make you aware of a site I have only recently been made aware of. It is called Omegle. ‘Omegle is a free online chat site that lets you speak to other users without registering. You can choose to talk via text chat or video call. The service randomly pairs users in one-on-one chat sessions where they chat anonymously using the names "You" and "Stranger" meaning you have no control over who you can talk to.’ (NSPCC) This has been given a ‘very poor’ overall safety rating by the NSPCC.

Some students have visited this website as they think it is amusing but we must be aware that some people may use this site to groom younger children.

The NSPCC website has lots of helpful information and so does the site www.net-aware.org.uk. On this website you can enter the name of an app and it will tell you the age you should be to use the app. The BBC also have some useful information. www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/44074704

We have placed some more information about on line safety on our school website under the ‘Student’ section.
What can you do as a parent?

One of the best things to do is to set up a monitoring app which will allow you to see what your child is viewing. Please see the link below for further information.

www.internetmatters.org/resources/monitoring-apps-parents-guide/

It is also a good idea to regularly check your child’s phone for anything which could potentially put them in a vulnerable situation.

It may be worth looking at the photographs stored on your child’s phone as some children send naked photos of themselves to other children. This is called ‘Sexting’. The law says that creating or sharing sexual images of a child under 18 years old is illegal, even if the person doing it is a child.

www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/sexting-sending-nudes/

Unfortunately, some children do share naked photos because they believe they have been sent one from the person they are chatting to. However, on further investigation it is usually found that the picture has been copied and pasted from the internet. 

Through assemblies and internet safety lessons we do warn students of these dangers but sometimes when it happens to them they believe it is genuine and do not think they are at risk or have been exploited.

If you require any additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact school and ask to speak to one of the designated safeguarding leads.