Online safety

Ensuring children are safe online is important to everyone at St Francis Xavier School.

By educating students and keeping parents and carers informed of common concerns with the use of online services, especially social media platforms, we can reduce the risks and improve the way in which children use this tool, which now as an integral part of modern life.

Children are online than ever before so it's even more important to talk to children about keeping them safe online. We encourage parents to talk to children about their online activity, monitor their usage and encourage them to have some time away from screens each day to support their well being. Please have a look at our monthly e-safety newsletters for more information. These are sent out to families each month and provide a good opportunity and reminder to sit down with children and talk to them about staying safe online.

Top tips to keeping your child safe online

Monitor your child’s phone, tablet and computer use – there are a variety of parental controls apps out there that allow you to keep tabs on their online activity.
Find time to talk to them about what they are doing online.
Emphasise that if children come across anything online that makes them worried, scared or uncomfortable that they should share this with you and that this should also be reported to CEOP (https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/). Anything illegal should be reported to 101.
Remind students about keeping their privacy settings high on social media and not accepting friend requests or messages from people they don’t know.
Remind children to not give out personal information including their passwords.
Encourage children to spend time away from their phones each day to help them relax and enjoy screen free time.