In the 21st Century, the safety of students on the internet is a crucial concern many teachers have, significantly if you grew up without the internet or aren’t well-versed in all things social media.

Even though the internet creates better opportunities for research and communication it can be dangerous so, with today being Safer Internet Day we wanted to share a few ways you can help keep your students safe when they use the internet.

One of the best ways to keep your students safe in any situation is to create an open and welcoming environment when it comes to talking about issues or problems your students may have. Making sure it is clear who the safeguarding team are in your school and where to find them is a great start but offering training to the majority of your staff on how to support a child who is being bullied or harassed online etc means that more students are likely to come forward and seek help from teachers they feel familiar and more comfortable with.

In assemblies or PHSCE lessons, you should make sure teachers are covering e-safety in detail. Furthermore, with the increased use of social media platforms in the younger generation advice on using social media and live streaming would prove useful. For example, privacy settings on each app, how to control who can view and interact with content and location settings on apps such as Snapchat will help create a level of safety for your students.

With the majority of social media and the internet being used at home it’s important to also educate parents or carers of students as well. Having resources sent out or given out at parents' evenings is a great way to spread tips on how to monitor their child’s internet usage but to help create a culture of talking about e-safety, questions and answers sessions with parents and carers may be more beneficial. Furthermore, your school could introduce a hotline or a designated person for carers to contact in the case of a problem or question they may have.

The Safer Internet Day website has tons of resources you can use to help educate your students so be sure to check that out also! We hope these tips prove helpful in making the internet safer for everyone in your school!

If you’re interested in making a difference by working in schools get in touch or send us your CV.