SEPT-DEC 2023 ISSUE - Flipbook - Page 50
Educating
parents about
online harms
– Advice for
teachers
By Mubina Asaria,
Online Safeguarding Consultant,
LGfL-The National Grid for Learning
Engaging parents in conversations about
online safety can be quite difficult for
teachers, however, parents need to be
aware of the crucial part they can play in
keeping their children safe. Often they
believe it should all be ‘left to the experts’
- that their children will learn about it
at school, however with 7-16 year olds
spending an average of four hours a day
online, much of that time falls outside
school hours.
So what can teachers do to help inform
parents and carers about the latest risks
and online harms? Do they know what
their children may have access to; and
what as parents they need to be aware
of? What strategies can we provide to
support and empower parents so they
feel confident and equipped to talk to
their children about their lives online and
help ensure they stay safe?
Ultimately it all comes down to
communication. With this in mind, and
using the latest information and statistics
from Ofcom’s Children and Parents: Media
Use and Attitudes 2023, and Revealing
Reality’s Anti-social Media Report 2023,
LGfL has put together a ‘free’ ready-to-use
PowerPoint, ‘My child’s life online –
parent discussion activities using Ofcom
statistics’.
The presentation is packed full of helpful
advice and resources for teachers to use
to deliver parent information sessions and
online safety workshops, to help build
their skills and confidence to open this
dialogue with their children.
Beginning the conversation
An effective way to introduce the subject
to parents, and begin the conversation
about online safety, is to ask how much
they know about their child’s life online.
Parents are usually familiar with some of
the apps their children use, but not
necessarily how long they spend on
them. The latest statistics on the use of
social media apps are guaranteed to fix
parental attention and kickstart
discussion.
Many parents will be surprised to learn
YouTube is the most popular site or app
with children aged 3 to 17 – not
surprising as 96% watch videos online followed by TikTok, Snapchat and
WhatsApp. They may be aware of age
restrictions, but unsure of the actual
minimum age requirement to have a
profile on social media apps – the latest
statistics from Ofcom, showed 84% of
parents knew about age restrictions,
but only 37% knew that this minimum
age was 13.
An incredible 17% of 3-4 year olds have
their own mobile phone, with a quarter
of these young children using WhatsApp.
Children aged three to seven, typically
use WhatsApp and FaceTime for sending
messages or making calls. The majority of
eight to eleven year olds have profiles on
TikTok, followed by WhatsApp, YouTube
and Snapchat. By 11-12 years old, 97%
of children have their own social media
profile, with almost universal rates of
mobile phone ownership which coincides
with the move for many children from
primary to secondary school.
Another helpful strategy is to ask parents
if they talk to their children about the
sites they use, and more importantly,
about what they are actually sharing.
Are they aware of what their children are
watching whilst they are in their rooms, or
on their devices at night? Do they really
know what’s going on? There are also
other interesting statistics on parental
supervision, which typically declines as
children get older and are at greater risk
of online harm; less than half of parents
directly supervised their child’s activity
between the ages of 5-7, with this figure
falling to 22% as they reached transition.
But what about social media and what
children are actually doing on it? Most
parents believe that apps like Snapchat
are just fun apps with filters to add
cartoon features to their photos, but as
with all apps, and especially those with
disappearing messages, there can be
a far darker more dangerous side.
Revealing Reality’s latest report – ‘Anti-social media: What some vulnerable
children are seeing on SnapChat’, explores
the types of harmful content available,
and includes firsthand experiences from
children and young people across Britain.