Internet Safety, Family Support and Wellbeing - Richard Lander School, Truro

The Internet is often the most important place for young people to find out about the world, research information, socialise and find entertainment.

If your children use the Internet at home, you already know how important it is to help protect them from inappropriate content and contact. The links on these pages will help you find support on how to manage your child’s use of technology. Teens are savvy about the Internet but they still need parents to remind them of appropriate safety guidelines. Parents should be available to help their teens understand inappropriate messages and avoid unsafe situations. It’s a good idea for parents to remind teens what personal information should not be given over the Internet.

Here are some safety tips to consider with older children (source microsoft.com):

Keep family communication as open and positive about computers as you can.
Keep talking about online lives, friends, and activities, just as you would about other friends and activities.
Insist that your children not share personal information such as their real name, address, phone number, or passwords with people they meet online.
Use family safety tools to create appropriate profiles for each family member and to help filter the Internet.
Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using a pop-up blocker.
Encourage your children to tell you if something or someone online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. Stay calm and remind your kids they are not in trouble for bringing something to your attention.
Know which websites your teens visit, and whom they talk to. Encourage them to use monitored chat rooms, and insist they stay in public chat room area.
Insist that they never agree to meet an online friend.
Teach your kids not to download programs, music, or files without your permission. File-sharing and taking text, images, or artwork from the web may infringe on copyright laws and can be illegal.
Talk to your teenagers about online adult content and pornography, and direct them to positive sites about health and sexuality.
Help protect them from spam. Tell your teens not to give out their email address online, not to respond to junk mail, and to use email filters.
Be aware of the websites that your teens frequent. Make sure your kids are not visiting sites with offensive content, or posting personal information. Be aware of the photos that teens post of themselves and their friends.
Teach your kids responsible, ethical, online behavior. They should not be using the Internet to spread gossip, bully, or threaten others.
Make sure your teens check with you before making financial transactions online, including ordering, buying, or selling items.
Discuss online gambling and its potential risks with your teens. Remind them that it is illegal for them to gamble online.

More information on keeping children safe whilst the access the internet:

HeadStart Kernow Parent Online Resilience Tools

Headstart Kernow Guide – Your Child Online 9-12 yrs

Headstart Kernow Guide – Your Child Online 13-15

Headstart Kernow Guide – Your Child Online 16-18 yrs

Headstart Kernow Online Resilience Podcast (Opens link in Spotify)

Kidsmart

Digizen

Thinkuknow (CEOPS)

We have put together a bank of recommended resources to help support the wellbeing and mental health of our students, parents and carers.

For Parents & Carers

Care and Support in Cornwall (Family Information Service)

Better Health, every mind matters: Looking after a child or young person’s mental health: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/childrens-mental-health/

Brook Learn – Talking about relationships and sex with young people isn’t always easy. To help you, we have developed a range of high-quality, self-directed and mostly free-to-access courses to empower, support and encourage you to deliver effective relationships and sex education (RSE). This draws on our experience of working with under 25s over the last five decades.

https://learn.brook.org.uk/

Caring for a young person can be a joy, but it can also bring immense stress, fear and loneliness when you’re not sure how to respond to your child’s problems. The Charlie Waller Trust offer a wealth of expert, evidence-based articles and resources for parents and carers, on a range of topics relating to the mental health of children and young people, which are being regularly added to. These resources are based on the lived experiences of parents and carers and offer practical advice and relevant information based on sound evidence from the Charlie Waller Trust and trusted sites.

https://charliewaller.org/parents-and-carers

YZUP Cornwall is a free and confidential support for young people in Cornwall around drugs and alcohol, offering support to make changes to their own substance use or to manage the impact of family members substance misuse.

Blogs on a range of issues to support parents: https://yzupblog.wixsite.com/yzupblog

Facebook page aimed at parents/carers and professionals: www.facebook.com/YZUPCornwall

We Are With You website with loads of information about getting help to cut down or stop using: www.wearewithyou.org.uk

Or call YZUP for advice or to make a referral: 01872 300816

YZUP Parent Leaflet

YZUP Service Poster

For Young People

This is an app specifically for supporting young people with mental health and emotional wellbeing:

https://www.kooth.com

Young Minds have some resources that speak directly to young people:

https://youngminds.org.uk

Then of course there is Childline, who also have an app now called ForMe: