6 Top Tips for Enhancing eSafety in Your School
“It’ll never happen to me or my school”.
A common thought that precedes cyber-attacks. Unfortunately, the statistics prove otherwise and the Department of Education has just released figures indicating a frightening increase in online grooming and radicalisation and showing more than 1 in 10 young people to currently experience cyber-bullying.
As children grow up in a virtual world, it is becoming equally important to teach them how to negotiate their digital environment, just as we do the physical.
To help with this, Sweethaven Education has compiled a few top tips for enhancing e-safety in your school and to better safeguard your children:
1. Enhance protection via internet filtering, anti-virus programmes and automatic monitoring for keywords e.g. addresses and telephone numbers
2. Increase monitoring capabilities through pulling internet reports and setting up automatic flagging on specific searches
3. Games consoles and mobile phones create huge potential for children to be contacted by strangers, bullied or groomed. Make sure restriction are set on phone via security software. There are apps that can track and record usage; tracking software can help with theft too.
4. Remember than any internet connected device is a portal to the worldwide web. This means that whatever can be picked up at home can then be circulated at school. Be sure to check the level of protection mobile devices can offer before purchasing
5.Make sure your designated safeguard leaders know how to report esfaety issues. Your IT provider can help to investigate when things don’t go right and can help you to prevent the same from happening again through input of correct protection levels
6. Enhance education and awareness through seminars, parents evening and literatures to raise awareness as to what could happen
Feel like you need a little more support on this? Give Sweethaven Education Services a call on 01737 247090 or drop us a line at education@sweethaven.co.uk to talk through any potential areas of weakness and options for security enhancement.
