The digital World is fast overtaking the real one and it is important that St Francis' and the community work together to ensure our children are safe both in the real World and online.

We very much hope these tips are useful:

• Know what your children are doing online and who they are talking to. Ask them to teach you to use any applications you have never used.
• Keep the computer in a family room. This means that you can share your child’s online experience – and that they are less likely to act inappropriately (i.e. via webcam).
• 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, their family or friends. If your child publishes a picture or video online, anyone can change it or share it. Remind them that anyone may be looking at their images and one day a future employer could!
• If your child receives spam/junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them. It’s not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they don’t know. They won’t know what they contain — it could be a virus, or worse — an inappropriate image or film.
• Help your child to understand that some people lie online and therefore it’s better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust.
• Always keep communication open for a child to know that it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.
• Teach young people how to block someone online and how to report them if they feel uncomfortable.

If you have any concerns please contact Miss Mason (Positive Futures Worker).

Useful Websites

Facebook

Important Information about Facebook  

The UK Safer Internet Centre (SWGfl) have very close working links with Facebook and the Safer Internet Centre national e-safety briefings this year, the advice was as follows:-

• It is known under 13s use Facebook and this in an on-going problem because the environment is not suitable for younger pupils. Continuing to support and educate young people is critical, but we should bear in mind the legalities of under 13s on Facebook.
   
• Any under 13 signing up to Facebook does so with a falsified date of birth, which is, technically, fraud, though law enforcement would never be used to deal with this problem.
   
•  Facebook has to comply with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act 1998). This means Facebook may not hold any details of young people under the age of 13 and they may not advertise to this group either. This legal restriction applies to Facebook regardless of where the child is signing up from (America or the rest of the world).
   
• Conclusion: Facebook is for over 13s only.