In this article, we're reviewing our practices to online safety and its importance to both our children and our staff teams throughout the schools we operate
Online Safety Policy
Our nursery is aware of the growth of internet use and the advantages this can bring. However, it is also aware of the dangers and strives to support children, staff and families in using the internet safely.
Keeping Children Safe in Education states “The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable, but can be categorised into three areas of risk:
ü content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful material;
ü contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; and
ü conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes,harm”
Within the nursery we aim to keep children (and staff) safe online by:
- Ensuring we have appropriate antivirus and anti-spyware software on all devices and update them regularly
- Ensuring content blockers and filters are on all our devices, e.g. computers, laptops and any mobile devices
- Keeping passwords safe and secure, not sharing or writing these down. These will be changed at least every term to keep the devices secure
- Ensure management monitor all internet activities in the setting
- Locking away all nursery devices at the end of the day
- Ensuring no social media or messaging apps are installed on nursery devices
- Management reviewing all apps or games downloaded to tablets to ensure all are age appropriate for children and safeguard the children and staff
- Using approved devices to record/photograph in the setting
- Never emailing personal or financial information
- Reporting emails with inappropriate content to the internet watch foundation (IWF www.iwf.org.uk)
- Ensuring children are supervised when using internet devices
- Using tracking software to monitor suitability of internet usage (for older children)
- Not permitting visitors access to the nursery Wi-Fi
- Integrating online safety into nursery daily practice by discussing computer usage ‘rules’ deciding together what is safe and what is not safe to do online
- Talking to children about ‘stranger danger’ and deciding who is a stranger and who is not, comparing people in real life situations to online ‘friends’
- When using Skype and FaceTime (where applicable) discussing with the children what they would do if someone they did not know tried to contact them
- Provide training for staff who need this to keep children safe online. We encourage staff to complete a online safety course which can be found at https://moodle.ndna.org.uk
- We abide by an acceptable use policy, ensuring staff only use the work IT equipment for matters relating to the children and their education and care. No personal use will be tolerated
- Children’s screen time is monitored to ensure they remain safe online and have access to material that promotes their development. We will ensure that their screen time is within an acceptable level and is integrated within their programme of learning.