Advice on protecting your child/young person online

Top Tips for Parents & Carers:

Set parental controls on all computers/gaming consoles/mobile phones in the home
Set up monitoring software on the computers in the home
Talk to your child about the risks involved in talking to strangers on the computer and what to do if they are approached
Talk to your child about social networks and setting privacy settings on each profile to ‘Only Friends and Networks’
Talk to your child about bullying and cyberbullying and about the negative effects bullying can have
Talk to your child about viewing inappropriate material online such as sexually explicit materials, race hate websites and self harm sites.
Set up your own social network profile in order to become more aware of what children and young people are doing online
Know about the risks and benefits of online gaming and illegal downloading
Know about the resources available to parents around reporting abuse on the internet
Know about resources available to parents around cyberbullying and bullying in schools

What is Esafety and what are the issues?

Esafety is a term used when talking about keeping children and young people safe in the world of the internet and mobile technology. Esafety relates to children viewing inappropriate material online, being approached by sex offenders online, being sexually exploited or abused online, and being bullied online or while using a mobile phone (cyberbullying.)

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying happens when one person or a group of people try to threaten, tease or embarrass someone else by using a mobile phone or the internet. Cyberbullying is just as harmful as bullying in the real world and can be against the law.

Is your child a part of it?
Those who take part in online bullying often use a group of friends to target their victims by asking them to add a comment to a photo on a blog, or asking them to forward it onto another group of friends. Sometimes, these people don’t even realise they’re actually bullying someone.

What forms can it take?
There are lots of different types of cyberbullying. The main ones are below:

Email
Sending emails that can be threatening or upsetting. Emails can be sent directly to a single target, or to a group of people to encourage them to become part of the bullying. These messages or ‘hate mails’ can include examples of racism, sexism and other types of prejudice.

If someone sends you a message and you forward or laugh at it, you’re actually adding to the problem.

Instant messenger and chatrooms
Sending instant messenger and chatroom messages to friends or direct to a victim. Others can be invited into the bullying conversation, and become part of it, even by doing something as simple as laughing.

Social networking sites
Setting up profiles on social networking sites to make fun of someone. By visiting these pages or contributing to them, you become part of the problem and add to the feelings of unhappiness felt by the victim.

Mobile phone
Sending humiliating and abusive text or video messages, as well as photo messages and phone calls over a mobile phone. This includes anonymous text messages over short distances using Bluetooth technology and sharing videos of physical attacks on individuals (happy slapping).

Interactive gaming
Games consoles allow players to chat online with anyone they find themselves matched with in a multi-player game. Sometimes cyber bullies abuse other players and use threats.

They can also lock victims out of games, spread false rumours about someone or hack into someone’s account.

Sending viruses
Some people send viruses or hacking programs to another person that can destroy their computers or delete personal information from their hard drive.

Abusing personal information
Many victims of cyberbullying have complained that they have seen personal photos, emails or blog postings posted where others could see them without their permission.

Social networking sites make it a lot easier for web users to get hold of personal information and photos of people. They can also get hold of someone else’s messaging accounts and chat to people pretending to be the victim.

The effects of cyberbullying
Even though cyberbullying cannot physically hurt you, it can still leave you feeling mentally vulnerable and very upset. You can also feel scared, lonely and stressed and that there’s no way out.

Escaping cyberbullying can be very difficult. Because anyone can get access to a mobile phone or the internet almost anywhere, it can be tough for those on the receiving end to avoid it, even in the safety of their own home.

Why do cyberbullies do it?
There’s no simple answer for why some people choose to cause pain to others by bullying them. There are lots of possible reasons, but here are some common ones:

some people who cyberbully think that they won’t get caught if they do it on a mobile phone or on the internet the people who cyberbully are jealous, angry or want to have revenge on someone, often for no reason at all cyberbullies often think that getting their group of friends to laugh at someone makes them look cool or more popular some people also bully others as a form of entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands many do it for laughs or just to get a reaction.

Further information and resources about Esafety can be obtained from the following websites

http://www.direct.gov.uk
http://www.ceop.gov.uk
http://www.thinkuknow.com
http://www.kidzui.com
http://www.bbesafe.com
http://www.lgfl.net
http://www.becta.org.uk
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org
http://www.bullying.co.uk
http://www.antibullying.net

For more information about Esafety in the borough or to find out about your schools’ parent workshops, please contact:

Jacky Rappoport
LSCB Esafety Co-ordintator
9 Park Lane
Chesterfield House
Wembley
HA9 7RW

Jacky.Rappoport@brent.gov.uk
Phone: 02089374372