Online Safety
Keeping children safe online is something we all have a role in. The College teaches online safety and has many processes and systems in place to make sure that their online life in College is safe. The College mobile phone policy also supports students in staying safe.
As a parent or carer you play a key role in helping your child to stay safe online. You don't need to be an expert on the internet to help keep your child safe online. On this part of our website we will be sharing advice and links from organisations that make it their mission to help you and your child use the internet safely, responsibly and positively.
Gaming
As children have spent more and more time online during the pandemic some of them are finding that their gaming is becoming an issue. These links may help you and your child talk about this in an informed way.
Video Game Addiction Test for Parents - Is Your Child Addicted? - TechAddiction
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Every day TechAddiction receives emails from parents concerned about how child video game addiction is interfering with their family's health and happiness. To help parents assess video game addictions in children and whether they should take action on their child's video game habits, TechAddiction is now offering the most comprehensive video game addiction test for parents available at: |
Sexting
The term sexting describes the use of technology to share intimate or sexual photos or videos. Young people may recognise the term sexting but not use it themselves to describe this behaviour. They would more likely use terms such as "sending nudes" or "sending pics"
The term sexting has come to include many different forms and can happen as part of an established or emerging relationship, as a dare, or through lack of understanding. The content is usually initially created to send to a trusted individual but can end up being shared more widely. Not all incidents of sexting are consensual and some people are pressured to send them through emotional exploitation or threats to share other information. Some sexting images are fake and just given the name of an individual. The images associated with sexting can be created on phones, tablets or webcams and are shared using a range of social media sites and messaging apps.
It is important that the adults in these young people's lives understand the prevalence of this, a survey done in 2017 by Project deSHAME with 3000 young people aged 13- 17 found that 13% of young people have sent a nude or nearly nude picture to a girlfriend or boyfriend. 51% of young people have seen people sharing nude/nearly nude images of someone they know.
As a College we work closely with other agencies, including the Police, to ensure that any incidents of sexting are dealt with swiftly, compassionately, and correctly. We also support young people who do not want to share images and we ensure that all students are taught about consent.
As parents and carers you can have conversations with your child about this issue, here are some ideas about how to start those conversations for different age groups.