7th February 2025
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
SAFER INTERNET DAY - 11 FEBRUARY 2025 February is an important month for technology as it features Safer Internet Day - A day designed to help inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively. Next week I shall be tackling this theme within my assemblies. However, internet safety is not just something we should focus on for one day; it should be of constant interest to us all. The national website for this event contains some useful resources for parents to engage in:
You can find further information and links in our monthly safeguarding newsletters. Click here to view our Safeguarding Newsletters on our website
The internet is wonderful. It has transformed the way we live, work and interact forever. However, for all the good technology does for us there remains many risks. Understanding how to use parental-controls is one way families can keep their children safe. Another way to protect children is to engage in the conversation. Some key advice includes the following: • • •
not using phones and mobile devices at the dinner table - talking as a family is very important for development keeping screens out of the bedroom at bedtime talking as a family about keeping safe online and
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about cyberbullying and what children should do if they are worried not using phones when crossing a road or doing any other activity that requires a person’s full attention making sure children take regular breaks from screens by getting up and being active
SOCIAL MEDIA Schools across the country are constantly dealing with situations in school that began outside of school. Situations such as these would not happen if social media had not been misused by children operating out of earshot late at night. Whilst we do our best to educate everyone about how to behave online and through social media it is our collective responsibility to ensure our learners are safe in their use of technology in and out of school. Parents, do you know how your children are using their technology in the evenings? This year’s safer internet day theme is: “Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online” The topic of cyber security is one I am very familiar with. Learners that study Computer Science will have spent much time discussing the many things we can do to protect ourselves online. I thought I would ask a few of them for some advice. The top answers were all about the threat of Social Engineering and Phishing SOCIAL ENGINEERING - the tactic of manipulating, influencing, or deceiving a victim in order to gain control over a computer system, or to steal personal and financial information. PHISHING - when criminals use scam emails, text messages or phone calls to trick their victims. The aim is often to make you visit a website, which may