Keeping up appearances in the technological age

There have been huge advances in technology as the digital revolution continues apace. This is creating great opportunities for youngsters, particularly if they are taught the right skills at school, but there are also dangers and pitfalls which parents and teachers need to guard against together.

This is something that St Bede’s Prep School has been taking particularly seriously. E-safety was the theme of Peter Bower’s talk to parents at St Bede’s Prep School recently. Peter is part of the South-West Grid for Learning, a group who concentrate on educating children, parents and teachers about the risks on-line. The talk highlighted the number of very young children who engage with strangers online through gaming communities, messaging and social networking and put themselves in potential danger from predatory behaviour.

It also covered some of the material that children can be exposed to, sometimes unwittingly, through technologies such as Bluetooth and 3G connection and some of the dangers associated with the many devices such as games consoles and phones that connect to the internet and can even reveal children’s location.

Parents were given tips on setting ‘Google Safe Search’, setting safety nets such as the dolphin, managing parental controls on computers, consoles and phones and understanding messaging speak. For instance it is common for children when messaging to type ‘POS’ (parent over shoulder) before minimising a screen as a parent enters the approaches. Parents were recommended to follow the GOLD rules:

G - Ground Rules - if it is not acceptable in real life, it should not be acceptable on-line
O - Online Safety - have parental monitoring systems and know how to activate security and privacy settings
L - Location - be aware that your child can access the internet wherever they are including some phones and games consoles; house the computer in a family room rather than a bedroom
D - Dialogue - share experiences, ask them