Summary of content:
- Guidance for online meetings
- AI (artificial intelligence)
- Online etiquette
- Comon areas of concern
- Phishing emails
- Suspicious behaviour online
- Password hygiene
- Open communication
- Encourage privacy settings and account security
- Cyberbullying education
- Parental controls
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Guidance for Online meetings
Some of your young person’s learning may be based at onsite at a workplace however some courses may require study from home. This may be enabled via platforms such as Teams or Zoom that help connect people in work or education.
Below we have listed some simple precautions you and your young person can take to ensure their meetings run smoothly and safely.
- Ensure that the meeting link they are accessing is password protected - This should not be share publicly to give opportunities for cybercriminals to intercept them
- Keep their video turned off until they are sure that the link they were sent is of the intended meeting and participants
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AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Many students use AI nowadays and used in the right way they can be useful tools for:
- Helping to generate ideas for studying or starting an assignment
- Create learning resources
- Providing explanations to concepts that you may struggling to understand
- Translations
- Summarise notes or transcripts from videos or podcasts
- Spell checking
However, they can easily be misused and are not 100% accurate so may give wrong or misleading information.
To prevent that here are some “golden rules “ for your young person to take into account provided by Kings College London:
Golden Rule 1: They can expand their knowledge with AI chats, but they cannot copy and paste results into their assignments, that is classed as plagiarism
Golden rule 2: If unsure of what is allowed do get them to liaise with their lecturers or supervisors
Golden rule 3: Make sure they acknowledge the use of AI before they submit their assignments
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Online Etiquette
It is important for your young person to acknowledge good communication and show respect during online interactions.
- Get them honour their scheduled meetings (time/date)
- Their location must be a quiet place where they and the others on the call can focus on the meeting
- Advocate punctuality. Arriving few mins before the meeting is good practice and will demonstrate their maturity and professionalism
- Reinforce the respect of meeting rules i.e. raise hand when they wish to speak, mute their microphone when not speaking young person
- They should be aware of a zero-tolerance policy on bullying and harassment and should treat others as they wish to be treated.
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Common areas of concern online
Some areas of concern online for young people include fake news, indecent images/videos, copyright & ownership, online gaming and cyber-bullying.
The BBC have created videos which go through and explores these issues and the impact on learners. Although these videos are aimed at educators it is informative for parents of learners too. Online safety - BBC Teach
What are the dangers of the digital literacy for learners?
- Emotional harm
- Exposure to age-inappropriate or harmful content
- Cyberbullying
- Child sexual exploitation
- Consensual and non-consensual sharing of nude or semi-nude photographs or videos i.e. sexting
- Radicalising content
If you are concerned for your young person’s welfare, then you can find appropriate signposting via your local authorities safeguarding team.
When it comes down to online safety and digital safety there are several skills that they can learn to protect themselves from unwanted experiences.
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Phishing emails
Phishing is a major threat for organisations as well as you and your young person’s safety.
Ways your young person can identify phishing emails:
- Email address is not official. Note the public email domain.
i.e. gmail.com, Hotmail.co.uk.
Education organisations will never use a public email domain
- Domain name is incorrect. i.e. microsrtft.com instead of microsoft.com
- If the email address is also mentioned a couple of times in the email but is not consistent you should be weary.
- Email is poorly written. Spelling and grammatical errors are also signs of a fraudulent email.
- Request of providing personal details over email. A legitimate company will not ask for sensitive information via email like passwords, bank card details or tax information.
- The organisation does not use their name. For example: Dear Sir/Madam is also a scam sign.
- Presence of unsolicited attachments. Authentic companies will direct you to download forms on their website. Sometimes they may send you documents to download but be on alert for high-risk attachment file types like .exe, .scr and .zip
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Suspicious behaviours online
The 4 C’s represent the four areas of risk that your young person may face.
Suspicious behaviour may be encouraging any of the below:
Content: the learner may be exposed to illegal, inappropriate content including fake news, racism, pornography, radicalisation or self-harm.
Contact: the learner may be subject to harmful contact online such as: peer-pressure, cyberbullying, grooming behaviour for financial, sexual gains.
Conduct: the learner may be encouraged to adopt behaviour linked to harm such as sending or receiving consensual or non-consensual nudes or semi-nudes, enabling apps to track location, obsessive use of internet with examples like video games addition, multiple social posts and number of likes, creation of hatred emails, stalking or harassment.
Commerce: learners may be encouraged to engage in financially harmful activities like gambling, phishing, financial exploitation or illegal sharing of documentation.
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Password hygiene
Password hygiene refers to principles that help your young person create and manage their passwords which are essential to their security profile. One of the leading password managers on the market, Dashlane, suggest several practices that you can help them to follow to protect their data.
- Use strong passwords which have unpredictable random letters or words that make it harder for hackers to break
- Don’t reuse passwords. We all do it, but best practice is to avoid this and strengthen their password hygiene
- Use of a multi-factorial authentication. A 2-factor authentication (2FA) offers greater protection through an additional credential which may be a code through an app on their phone. If someone tries to get into one of their accounts, they will receive the 2FA notification.
- Don’t share passwords. Advise them not to share their passwords with anyone.
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Open communication
Being open and answering questions that your young person may have is a good way to keep them safe online. Sometimes this can be a daunting conversation, and you as parents may not know where to start. Below are some examples of starter conversation ideas from the charity Childnet. Their aim is to support with informative content for parents, children and educators.
Resources for parents and carers:
- Family agreement where parents and learners can discuss expectations and set boundaries in relation to internet usage
- My life online
- Information content “Let’s talk about life online”.
- Parents and carers resource sheet
- Leaflet for foster carers and adoptive parents
- Guide for parents of children who have got in trouble online (inappropriate or illegal behaviour)
- Supporting young people with mental health and wellbeing – Parents survival guide
- FPA - Talking to your children about growing up, relationships and sex
Image source: Childnet.com
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Encouraging privacy settings and account security
Privacy settings help learners to control who can see their information and therefore interact with them.
It is a good idea to:
- Regularly update your privacy settings
- Limit the amount of information you share online
- Protect your profile through creating strong password and using 2-factor authentication
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Education on cyberbullying
Cyberbullying can take many forms and bringing these into your discussion with your young person contributes to increasing awareness. According to a report undertaken by Childnet charity 12% of 9-16years have experienced cyberbullying. Examples include harassment, stalking, exclusion, peer rejection, impersonation, manipulation, unauthorised use of personal information, intimidation and threats.
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Parental controls
Parental controls allow parents to block or filter inappropriate content and they work across your home broadband, Wifi, phone networks, devices such as games consoles, tablets and computers as well as apps, online services and search engines.
What parental controls can you set up?
- You can set the when and how long the young person can go online for
- You can filter content that different family members can see
- You can block app that may show inappropriate content
Being aware of age ratings is also useful to ensure age-appropriateness of content and how this can affect the learner’s development and wellbeing.
Of course, cutting them off online access should be accompanied by open communication and explanation why this is place i.e. to keep them safe. Also, content filters are never 100% certain so should your young person be exposed to content that they shouldn’t make sure that you talk to them about this.
Additional resources:
Parent info -guidance to parents and carers from leading organisations
UK Safer Internet Centre: tips and advice
Inclusive Digital Safety Hub: support for your people with additional learning needs
What can you do to help learners stay safe online?
- BBC has developed an app called Own It which helps young people navigate online and has a special keyboard which can support them when they need it the most.
- There is also an app for parents called SafeToNet aimed at support parents to protect their young people from online risks, whilst also respecting the young person’s right to privacy.
- Support with their mental health via NHS resources:
- Create your own free Mind Plan. A 5 questions quiz that creates a personalised plan with suggestions and advice
- Sign up for anxiety-easing emails
- Get sleep tips sent to your inbox
- Learn about online safety:
- NSPCC has many blogs and resources
Useful links:
Phishing emails: https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/5-ways-to-detect-a-phishing-email
https://www.securitymetrics.com/blog/7-ways-recognize-phishing-email
Childnet.com https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/have-a-conversation/
What harms might my young person experience online? https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-online/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-parents-and-carers-to-keep-children-safe-online
Create your own free Mind Plan https://anxiety.ecrm-registration.nhs.uk/
Get sleep tips sent to your inbox https://sleep.ecrm-registration.nhs.uk/
Sign up for anxiety-easing emails https://anxiety.ecrm-registration.nhs.uk/
7 password hygiene best practices to follow
https://www.dashlane.com/blog/password-hygiene-best-practices
Online safety and crime https://safeguarding.network/content/safeguarding-resources/online-safety/#spot-the-signs
Cyberbullying guidance https://www.childnet.com/resources/cyberbullying-guidance-for-schools/