On the 7th of February within digital technologies we learned more about how to stay safe online as it’s safer internet day to help children realise the dangers online. Safe Internet Day use the slogan – ‘Be the change: Unite for a better internet.’ Not only do children have to stay safe online, adults also do. An example of this would be teachers as they have to keep a professional reputation. Many teachers and other professionals use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to contact family members or friends. However, it is important that they do not accept friend requests on personal accounts as this could result in a very negative result.
It is very important that within teaching, children are given rules towards how to stay safe online and scenarios to help them understand and think more about risky situations they could get themselves into. A scenario that could be asked by a teacher could be ‘if this was to happen, what would you do?’. Children should be taught that before posting pictures that they have to be very aware of the privacy and audience.
Children should be educated that from their pictures, it is very easy for personal information to be leaked to the internet which would result in massive risks. The individuals within the school need to understand that posting pictures in school uniform can give information of what age the individual may be and what school they go to. This could pose as a big threat to the individual(s) as this gives others direct access to where they will be before the school day and after.
Children also need to be taught that posting pictures of street names could result in a negative outcome as this will release information as to where they live and so the individual is much more vulnerable. Within schools, teachers should ask children how they can make sure they are sharing photos safely online. This could be done by the teacher instructing the children to stop, think and ask themselves questions before sharing the photo.
There are important questions all children should have the opportunity to think about before they post pictures online. These could include questions such as; who else will be able to access the photo that has been shared, who is the photo being shared with, what personal information will be taken from the photo and lastly what information will people find out about other individuals in the photos. This is why the use of rules and scenarios are extremely beneficial when teaching children about the importance of internet safety. They allow them to think about the possible risks and outcomes they may experience online if they do not follow these strategies or rules.
