The best start in life for all our children.
The London Grid for Learning have designed the Digisafe service to offer extensive resources, guidance and support to parents and carers. Follow this link to their website to get some top tips to support you Keeping your Child safe: online and beyond.
How about drawing up a Digital Family Agreement to make clear what is allowed. Shared expectations will reduce arguments and keep everyone safe & healthy.
This is a relatively new service from YouTube but well worth you looking into and setting up for your children.
Supervised Experience builds on the historic (and pretty poor) Restricted Mode, which is essentially a filter allowing users to block content which is deemed for adult users only. There are now 3 filtering levels which are:
Importantly, parents manage these settings from their own device via Google Family Link.
There's a really simple and helpful guide HERE which is worth sending out to parents or linking on your school website, it also includes a walkthrough video (under "Supervised Accounts on YouTube - How do I Get Started?".
SNAPCHAT
Does your child use Snapchat?
Technically children shouldn’t be using Snapchat as it’s Terms of Service state that young people under 13 years old should not create an account.
Should I be concerned about Snapchat?
The features of Snapchat can present potential risks to young people online. These features include:
Connecting to other users they do not know
Linking to other platforms
Sharing of information and images
Limited internal moderation
The biggest concern lately is the use of Snap Maps
‘Snap Maps’ use a device’s location information to locate a user on a virtual map. A user is represented by a bitmoji- also known as an avatar- on the map at their precise location. Street names and buildings are
visible. When using Snap Maps for the first time, users are prompted by Snapchat to “Allow Snapchat to access location information”. Next the user is prompted to choose the people they would like to see their location on the map. The options include: My friends, Only me (‘Ghost Mode’), or Selected friends. Dependent on the settings chosen, a user’s precise location will be visible to their selected audience on Snapchat.
It is important that young people understand exactly who can see their location on Snap Maps. Allowing all Snapchat friends (some of whom may be strangers) to see this information can present a risk to young people, as they will be able to see their exact location in real time. Have a conversation with your child about what they do online, who they share their location with, and ways they can keep themselves safe.
You may also find it helpful to read our Online Safety policy, under the policy tab.