Skip to content ↓

Holy Family Catholic Primary School

Online Safety

ONLINE SAFETY

Here at Holy Family Primary School, we follow the SMART rules to stay safe online.  Children are all taught these rules as part of their online safety lessons and have a poster displayed in their classrooms.

Your help is still needed at home to keep your child safe online through filters, privacy settings and monitoring.

Online Safety at Home

Simple rules at home

If you would like to set up some ground rules at home for keeping your child safe online, here are some suggestions below. Go through these with your child and you may wish to have them pinned up near the computer. Refer to them regularly. Monitor the sites your child has been visiting by checking History and Favourites.

  • Ask permission before using the Internet.
  • Only use websites you have chosen together or use a child friendly search engine e.g. Kiddle https://www.kiddle.co
  • Only email people you know.  Setting up an address book helps with this.
  • If an email is received from someone you don’t know, ask permission before opening it.
  • When using games on the Internet, create a nickname not your real name.
  • Do not give out your home address, phone or mobile number.
  • Never tell someone where you go to school.
  • Never arrange to meet someone you have ‘met’ on the Internet.
  • Only use a webcam with people you know.
  • Do not use Internet chat rooms.
  • If you see anything that you are unhappy with, tell an adult you trust immediately.

Safety button

A safety button can be installed on your computer at home.  The Hector’s World button is in the form of a small character on screen, which the child can click if they see anything that worries or upsets them.  The screen will then display a calm underwater scene and encourages the child to get help from an adult.  See the link below.

http://hectorsworld.netsafe.org.nz/teachers/hectors-world-safety-button/

Apps and Gaming

Some games and apps used by primary school age children at home actually require users to be 13 or over in order to open an account.  Here is a link, explaining what the commonly used apps are and their age ratings.

https://www.net-aware.org.uk

These apps include Tik Tok, Instagram and Snapchat.  As a school, we would strongly advise parents that children do not use these apps before that age.  If, as a parent, you do decide to let your child use these apps, please could we ask that this is monitored closely.  This would include ensuring your child:

  • sets their privacy settings so that only 'Friends' can see and comment on their posts.