Safer Internet Centre

Today Education Secretary Nicky Morgan MP announced new measures to keep safe online at school and at home. As part of this, the Government is seeking views on proposed revisions to guidance for schools on keeping children safe, which will help to strengthen online safety provision. The consultation is open for submissions until 16th February . David Wright, a Director of the UK Safer Internet...

The Professionals Online Safety Helpline will be closed over the festive period from 4pm on the 23rd December until 10am on Monday 4th January 2016. Emails and voicemails received over this period will not be responded to until we return. If you have serious concerns for a child in your care please follow your organisations safeguarding procedures or contact your local Police. If you need advice...

The UK Safer Internet Centre is delighted to announce the launch of the Safer Internet Day Education Packs for primary age children (3-11 years), secondary age children (11-19 years) and parents and carers. The resources are designed to help schools, youth groups and other organisations to deliver activities for children, young people, parents and carers on Safer Internet Day 2016 on the 9th...

According to figures published this week by the Health and Social Care Information Centre , around twice as many girls (19 per cent) than boys (10 per cent) reported being a victim of cyberbullying in 2014. These findings, which were taken from the first ‘What About YOUth? Survey’ which was completed by more than 120,000 15-years old, shows the increasing risks that girls face online. In...

This Christmas, many children will be asking their parents for tablets, games consoles and smartphones. As the Ofcom’s Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2015 revealed the number of children using a tablet has risen to over half (53%) of 3-4s, from 39% in 2014, and 75% of 5-15s, up from 64% in 2014. Childnet and PhonepayPlus’s report, Young people’s experiences with in-app...

Over half of schools have had no online safety staff training. Schools make more effort training parents than staff. Whilst schools are generally improving their online safety provision, there are still barriers to progress, particularly in areas that affect the most change such as empowering staff to deal with online issues and involving the wider school community. Over half of schools (54%)...

The internet can be a fantastic place to connect with friends; discover new things and be creative. However it’s really important to be careful what personal information you share and who you share it with. Not everyone online has good intentions. Even if you’ve been chatting to someone for a long time, remember that people that you have only met online are still strangers. It’s important that...

On Tuesday 24th November we ran a Safer Internet Day Twitter Q&A for schools. The Q&A was an opportunity for us to share some of the amazing ideas from the schools that have registered as Safer Internet Day supporters and for schools to ask us questions and share with each other what they have planned. We've put some of the highlights into a storify . [ View the story "Safer Internet Day...

Ever wondered if all apps are ok to download or what in-app purchasing is? Here’s some top tips and advice to make sure you know what you’re downloading on your mobile or tablet. So before you click that download button here’s what to check: Make sure you check what the app really does, read the reviews and ratings. Check the age ratings and content descriptions on apps before you download them,...

Ofcom’s latest report, Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report , has revealed that the number of children believing everything they read on Google and social media sites has doubled. Compared to 2014, there have been increases in the numbers of 8-11s and 12-15s who visit news websites or apps and who answer that all the information on these sites is true (23% vs. 12% for 8-11s and 14...