Safer Internet Day 2017 – Be the change: unite for a better internet

By Mr Graeme Hallam, Deputy Head Pastoral and Co-curricular and Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Safer Internet Day 2017 will take place on Tuesday 7th February with the theme ‘Be the change: unite for a better internet’.

300 million people will use Instagram today…fact. Like it or loathe it the internet is here to stay and, as educators and parents, it is our responsibility to support our boys in staying as safe as they possibly can whilst using it.

At Newcastle School for Boys we will be using assemblies, tutorials, and lessons to promote safer internet day and to discuss the current issues young people face using the internet. So far this year we have sent eight of our senior boys to the ‘Be Strong Online’ training programme to become Be Strong Online Ambassadors. The Be Strong Online Ambassadors had the opportunity to meet and befriend students from other schools, learn about the issues young people face online and then came back to school to deliver short presentations to their peers.

Recently Julian Hughes from GEM Education, who is an internet safety consultant to a number schools in the Newcastle area, visited the school to deliver a presentation to staff on how best they can support their boys in staying safe online.

It was a very informative, enlightening and at times hard hitting presentation which left staff feeling empowered and in a position to offer advice to our boys. It included some very straight forward steps such as how to change the settings on both iOS and android devices and how to change the settings on home Wi-Fi. The underlying message that was delivered was one of communication. Julian advised against a parent or educator completely banning a child from using the internet. A much more productive method would be to sit down and discuss with the young person the issues that they face and offer advice and support on how they can use the internet safely.

Recently the 2017 CHILDWISE Monitor annual report was published. It looked at five to 16 year olds media consumption, purchasing and social habits as well as key behaviour. Around 2000 children in schools across the United Kingdom completed in-depth online surveys for the report. The report now confirms that smartphones are now the default device for music, online access, gaming, video content and reading overtaking tablets which have by all accounts reached saturation level.

Other main findings were:

• Children claim to use the internet for an average of three hours a day. One in eight say they spend more than six hours online per day.

• Social networking sites are more popular than texting for children to keep in touch with one another outside school.

• YouTube is the most popular website among children this year, far ahead of second place favourite Snapchat, and is the most popular video on demand service, ahead of second place Netflix – almost all children use YouTube.

• Children are now just as likely to watch content on their mobile phone as on a TV set.

• A quarter of nine to 16 year olds turn off or get around safety controls when they go online.

Very rarely will parents/guardians/teachers be more up to date with online trends more than our children but what we can do is seek to become more aware than we currently are so we can help our young people make informed decisions.