On 8th February staff from the ICT department gave a well attended talk on Internet Safety. Several people have expressed an interest in sharing the information with others who were unable to attend the evening. The paragraphs below are from the handout distributed on the evening, a copy of the accompanying presentation may be viewed here:
Internet Safety Evening – Handout

“Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you are on Candid Camera, because you are.”    Seth Godin


Cyber Bullying

Blocking a number:

• Vodafone: 191 from a Vodafone phone or 08700700191 (pay monthly) & 08700776655 (pay as you go)
• 3: call 333 from a 3 phone or 0870733033
• Orange: Call 450 on an Orange phone or 07973100450
• T-Mobile: Call 150 on a T-mobile phone or 08454125000

General advice:

• Save texts or voicemails
• Block the bully
• Print out web pages
• Contact the web company (if appropriate)
• Contact the police
• Help your children to understand that they should never forward pictures, messages or insults
• Install the CEOP reporting button for Internet Explorer

Seeing Inappropriate Material

• Monitoring software – records what sites have been visited
• Filtering software – Lets you set up a list of allowed sites or block individual ones. Some are free, some cost.
• Proxy sites – designed to get around the filters
• GetNetWise – good starting point for advice and resources
• Google Family safety centre
• Some phone companies sell handsets with pre installed filters
• Figure out how to use it!


File Sharing

• The best tip for file-sharing is to stop and think before downloading files through these networks. It's best to keep your and your kids' file-sharing safe, secure and legal.
• Don't download files from people you don't trust -- Just like you shouldn't open e-mail attachments from people you don't trust
• Keep your file-sharing legal -- Downloading copyrighted music, movies and software using these file-sharing programs without the copyright owner's permission could put you in serious legal trouble.
• Watch out for spy-ware –
• Use and update your anti-virus software
• Secure your sensitive computer information
• Parents, talk to your kids -- Parents should be aware that file-sharing networks contain inappropriate audio and video clips -- many of a sexually explicit nature.

Social Networking & Grooming

• Know what your children are doing online
• Ask them to teach you to use any applications
• Set some ‘family rules’
• Change their profile privacy settings to ‘friends only’
• Keep the computer in a family room - this means you can keep more control of what they do (i.e. Webcams)
• Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends - personal information includes:
• their messenger id
• email address
• mobile number and any pictures of themselves

Here are some common signs of grooming that you should be aware of. It doesn’t mean that your child is being groomed, but signs to look out for if you’re worried:

• Excessive use of the computer
• Aggressive behaviour regarding internet usage
• Secretive behaviour
• Change in use of sexual language


Helping with homework

• How do I use the software?
– Teach-ICT.com has some brilliant video tutorials
– Get your child to teach you!

• How do I help them to search/research?
– Encourage them to use key words/synonyms
– Encourage them to question the reliability & bias of a source (remember, anyone can edit Wikipedia!)
– Discourage them from copying & pasting

• Ask them to explain their task to you and talk you through it


Viruses & file sharing

• Don’t allow your children to install or access this type of software
• Install Antivirus software and keep it updated (AVG is a free application, but you can pay for others)
• If your child receives spam / junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them.
• Install Anti Spyware software and keep it updated

Useful links

All the materials from this evening can be found at www.mrcolley.com – Just follow the ‘Internet Safety’ link on the homepage.

• www.Thinkuknow.org
• www.CEOP.police.uk
• www.Staysafeonline.org
• www.Getnetwise.org
• http://www.google.co.uk/familysafety/