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Learners’ online safety while studying

5th Dec 2024

Education of online safety is an essential first step to staying safe online. This is known as digital literacy and it refers to how learners can find, evaluate, create information and interact online.

We will dive into the ways of staying safe whilst learning and later will expand on the general aspects of online safety.

Summary of content:

  1. Guidance for online meetings
  2. AI (artificial intelligence)
  3. Online etiquette
  4. Common areas of concern
  5. Phishing emails
  6. Suspicious behaviour online
  7. Password hygiene
  8. Encourage privacy settings and account security

 

  1. Guidance for Online meetings

Some of your learning may be based onsite at a school/college 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 that you can take to ensure your meetings run smoothly and safely.

  • Ensure that the meeting link you are accessing is password protected - This should not be share publicly to give opportunities for cybercriminals to intercept them
  • Keep your video turned off until you are sure that the link you were sent is of the intended meeting and participants

 

  1. 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 you to take into account provided by Kings College London:

Golden Rule 1: Expand your knowledge with your AI chats but do not copy and paste the results into your assignments, that is classed as plagiarism

Golden rule 2: If unsure of what is allowed do ask your lecturers or supervisors

Golden rule 3: Acknowledge the use of AI before you submit your assignments

 

  1. Online Etiquette

It is important for you to acknowledge good communication and show respect during online interactions.

  1. Honour your meetings (date/time)
  2. Your location must be a quiet place where you and the others on the call can focus on the meeting
  3. Arriving few mins before the meeting is good practice and will demonstrate maturity and professionalism
  4. Respect meeting rules i.e. raise your hand when you wish to speak, mute microphone when not speaking
  5. Stick to the zero-tolerance policy on bullying and harassment and treat others like you’d like to be treated.

 

  1. Common areas of concern online 

Some areas of concern include fake news, indecent images/videos, copyright & ownership, online gaming and cyber-bullying.

The BBC have created videos which goes through and explore these issues and the impact on you as a learner. Although these videos are aimed at educators s it is informative for you as a learner 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 about any content, you have viewed, or feel could be of harm then you can contact your local authorities safeguarding team for further advise.

When it comes down to online safety and digital safety there are several skills that you can learn to protect themselves from unwanted experiences.

 

  1. Phishing emails

Phishing is one of the major threats for organisations as well as individuals such as yourself.

Ways to 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 address you by your 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

 

  1. Suspicious behaviours online

The 4 C’s represent the four areas of risk that you as a learner 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 into financially harmful activities like gambling, phishing, financial exploitation or illegal sharing of documentation.

 

  1. Password hygiene

Password hygiene refers to principles that help you create and manage your passwords which are essential to your security profile. One of the leading password managers, on the market, Dashlane, suggest several practices that you can follow to protect your 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 our 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 your phone. If someone tries to get into one of your accounts, you will receive the 2FA notification.
  • Don’t share passwords. Do not share your passwords with anyone.

 

  1. Privacy settings and account security

Privacy settings help you to control who can see your information and interact with you.

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\

 

Resources:

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 child 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/