Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety for Early Learning and Childcare

Why is cyber resilience and internet safety (CRIS) so important?

We are spending an increasing amount of time learning, playing and socialising in online environments. In fact, 87% of people aged 16+ in the UK used the internet in 2019 (Ofcom). Our online behaviours fall into three categories, we:

consume
create
communicate

To support our children and young people navigate this part of their lives, we need to be able to support them to recognise, react to, and recover from online harms. At the same time, we need to promote safer, smarted and kinder ways of playing, learning and socialising online.

Embedding the experience & outcome through a practical play-based approach

This session recording aims is to support and equip you with the knowledge and confidence to embed cyber resilience and internet safety at early level through a practical play-based approach. This session will explain where Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety sits within the Technologies curriculum and where it overlaps with the Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy and Maths and Literacy and English curriculum, and why it is so important to embed across your curriculum. We will unpick the CRIS experience and outcome and explore what this means in the context of play and how it can be part of everyday conversations, and what this might look like in your own settings.

Resources for Supporting CRIS in ELCs

All childcare providers want to create a safe and secure environment for the children in your care. As we become ever more reliant on digital technology it is increasingly important that you protect data (on children, staff and families), finances and also the integrity of any digital systems you use, including email, communication channels and databases.

There are a handful of steps you can take to minimise the potentially costly and disruptive effect of a cyber incident, and better safeguard the children in your care, as well as your business’s finances and reputation. This short seminar is for anyone working in childcare in Scotland. It is run by the National Cyber Security Centre (www.ncsc.gov.uk), and supported by the Scottish Government, Education Scotland and Care Inspectorate, as part of CyberScotland Week. It will provide you with advice and steps you can take to minimise the likelihood and impact of a cyber attack on your setting, and information about where to get help and advice if you need it.

Please click here to download e-pamphlet PDF Early Years practitioners: using cyber security to protect your settings.