Online safety advice for all parents
Advice for pupils and parents around social media use.
Last year, King's supported several students and their parents following some negative incidents on social media.
In light of this, Mrs Sumner wanted to share some advice and guidance, as well as details of some of the incidents we have recently dealt with as a school.
Whilst we are being constantly reminded of the links between social media and mental illness in the media, this hits home a little more when you learn of situations involving children at King’s and we want to challenge the notion of ‘that won’t happen to my child’.
Last year, 32% of incidents involving fall outs between pupils at King’s involved mobile phones and/or social media use, mainly at home. We are also aware that over-use of social media can have an attritional effect on pupil mental health, with some King’s pupils reporting that they spend more than 5 hours per day on their phones using social media out of school and that this has significantly compromised their sleeping patterns.
Last year alone, we know of four King’s students who were groomed online. The youngest of these was in J3, and the oldest in the Fourths.
Very recently, we reported an incident to Cheshire Police after a What’s App group was set up and Year 7 pupils from around Chester were added. The initial dog and cat photos that enticed pupils to join quickly turned into pornographic images.
We continue to have strict and clear rules around mobile phones in school. Our filtering and monitoring systems in school protect your children from harmful content whilst they are connected to our network. However, many children have a virtual private network (VPN) on their phone to bypass our monitoring and filtering systems. This means that if they have their mobile phone on them, they can be on social media, watch inappropriate material when unsupervised or show others content which is unsuitable.
Please remember that students in Removes-Fifths can only bring a mobile phone to school if it is locked away in their locker. Students found using their phone during the school day will receive a conduct point and have it confiscated to be collected at the end of the day. Repeated breaches of the rule will result in us asking parents to collect the phone.
We do appreciate that mobile phones and social media have their benefits, and we know that it isn’t always easy for parents to manage their children’s use of mobile phones. However, the start of a new school year s the perfect time to encourage change, healthy habits and enforce new routines. With this in mind, we recommend the following:
At King’s we strongly believe that no Junior or Infant School pupil needs a mobile phone (especially smart phones which can access the internet)
We strongly encourage all parents to curb social media use or gaming after 9pm
We strongly encourage all parents to ensure their children avoid screen use an hour before they go to bed
Parents should take their children’s devices out of their bedrooms when they go to bed.
There are a number of apps in the Appstore that limit the time spent on apps, as well as allow you to monitor what your children are looking at on their smartphones. We are currently looking at recommending a specific app for all King’s parents and will update you on this in the near future.
On your Wellbeing Hub parent account there are great question/answer sections on addiction, along with a useful family contract if you are concerned about overuse. The podcast on online safety with expert Jonathan Taylor is particularly helpful.
On the parent Firefly page you will find a page of guidance where we have streamlined suitable age-appropriate resources.
Internet Matters is a great website with lots of information and guidance. Click on the image below for a guide for pupils and parents navigating social media and phone use as children move into Senior School.
