So, this Tuesday is Safer Internet Day. My school, like many others will be undertaking tasks to mark this (as well as children’s mental health week, which takes place this week also).
E safety runs as a thread through our computing curriculum and classes learn about e safety all year round.
This year I’m also delivering parent workshops about e safety, working alongside our school counselling service to support parents with their concerns regarding the internet.
I wanted to write about those pictures that have cropped up across my social media this weekend, asking people to share them so children can see how far a picture can travel. This pictures are misguided, in my opinion. 10 years ago, it might have shocked children, but most children nowadays are digital natives, they’ve grown up in an increasingly connected world. They are used to seeing YouTube videos with multi-million views and comments in the hundreds of thousands from all over the world. They are far more savvy about the viral nature of the internet than I think most teachers are.
Where I think the teaching comes is with the idea that children don’t see the risks around content they upload; they don’t see that a photo of them uploaded along with their name can provide a window into their online lives, and with geo-tagging, a location as well.
its such a loaded topic, so complex, that it takes more than a day or week annually to go into.
The 8 bit Teacher 