Online Safety
The online world offers opportunities for our students to use as a tool to learn as well as social contact with friends and others from around the world. With this comes risks which is why we feel it important to educate students, staff and parents around online safety. As a college we hope to raise awareness of potential issues as well as encouraging safe internet use and for students to be able to speak to others should they feel things are out of their control.
We will be having South Yorkshire Police Cyber Prevent / Protect Officer and Fraud Officer come into college to offer informal chats with students and for future presentations to students and staff.
Should we receive any intelligence from the police or safeguarding board regarding potential risks / threatening apps, we will share these with students, staff and parents.
The use of technology has become a significant component of many safeguarding issues. As a Trust we are aware that the predominant issues associated with online safety are:
• Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation and extremism.
• Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes.
• Conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and nonconsensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying; and
• Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams.
If you feel pupils, students or staff are at risk, please report it to the Safeguarding Team or South Yorkshire Police.
In college we have a filtering system in place with appropriate filters which cover all devices when logged in to our system. All traffic is monitored, and any concerns will be raised with the safeguarding team.
Social Media
As part of the student code of conduct and disciplinary policy, students have agreed to: ‘Behave in a courteous and honest way when using social media. Operate within the Law, respecting the privacy and feelings of others at all times. Do not use the names, contact details or images of other students or staff without their prior permission.’
Students have agreed not to: ‘Transmit any communications or images (via mobile phones, IT, or other means) to cause distress’.
In college we will take active steps to eliminate harassment and bullying of any kind including cyber bullying and will continue to take a zero-tolerance approach.
Cyberbullying is an aggressive act using online social media and other electronic forms of contact. This may include calling, sending messages, sharing images / videos via mobile phone, email, chat room or other web-based platforms.
Top tips for staying safe
- Protect your log in’s by using a strong and separate password
- Install the latest software and app updates
- Think before you post (don’t share personal information)
- Don’t click on links if they look like a scam
- Think about who you are talking too (are they really who they think you are)
- Keep your device safe and locked if not in use
- Don’t share your password with anyone
- Cover your webcam if not in use
- Don’t reply to threats
More Information
For further information please see links below:
In addition, CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) can help support young people to report online sexual abuse or concerns you may have around contact with someone online.