Lots of children using or having access to social networking sites

Following our very successful NSPCC assemblies last week, Key Stage 2 have been having class discussions and lessons regarding E Safety. What became clear very quickly is that children are having access to a wide range of social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, Musical.ly, snap chat and WhatsApp. They also showed very little understanding of privacy settings (particularly on Musical.ly) and that anything they post could be visible to outsiders. We regularly discuss E-Safety in school including the dangers connected to talking to people on line and steps to keep themselves safe as part of our curriculum but it is clear that this is an increasing issue. Children as young as eight are admitting to creating their own or using older family member’s social media accounts and admit to not always telling their parents. We would strongly recommend that E safety needs to continue to be spoken about regularly at home.

Below is an interesting article regarding children using social media and two website links with further advice on how you can support with this at home.

• Child, Safety online 
• Common Sense Media, social networking
• NSPCC, Keeping children safe