New technologies inspire children to be creative, communicate and learn. However, while the internet is a great resource, it is important that children and young people are protected from the risks they may encounter. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) is a group of more than 200 organisations drawn from across government, industry, law, academia and charity sectors that work in partnership to help keep children safe online. The Council was established in 2008 following a review by Professor Tanya Byron discussing, and taking action, on topical issues concerning children’s use of the internet..
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The Education for a Connected World framework describes the Digital knowledge and skills that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages of their lives. It highlights what a child should know in terms of current online technology, its influence on behaviour and development, and what skills they need to be able to navigate it.
The document supports one of the key aims of the government’s Internet Safety Strategy of supporting children to stay safe and make a positive contribution online, as well enabling teachers to develop effective strategies for understanding and handling online risks.
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Sexting Guidance available in Welsh
The UKCCIS Education Group has produced advice for schools and colleges in Wales on responding to incidents of ‘sexting.’ The advice aims to support them in tackling the range of issues which these incidents present including responding to disclosures, handling devices and imagery, risk assessing situations and involving other agencies. The advice also contains information about preventative education, working with parents and reporting imagery to providers. This advice is non-statutory and should be read alongside the Welsh Government’s Keeping learners safe statutory guidance. Schools and colleges in England should continue to refer to the English version. The Welsh version of the guidance is available here: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/professionals/guidance/sexting-guidance-wales/
Keeping children safe from bullying connected to race and faith is integral to building safe and thriving communities. This guide highlights some key actions that can both prevent, and respond to race and faith targeted bullying in a school environment. There are also links to further resources and activities that can help you in your approach to promoting good relationships and equality in your school.
This review focusses on addressing: trends, to understand recent developments and anticipate emerging issues; online risk of harm to children and implications for safety policy and practice; and key findings, linking to original reports, highlighting useful graphs and including verbatim quotes from children where available.
External visitors can provide a useful and engaging approach to enable educational settings to deliver online safety messages to children, young people and adults. Educational settings seeking support from external visitors to help explore issues such as cyberbullying, online pornography, ‘sexting’ and staying safe online can use this document to guide their process of selecting suitable visitors and sessions. This consultation document explores key questions in the form of a checklist to help educational settings ensure the maximum impact of online safety sessions. The guidance highlights a range of resources which can be used to support educational settings to develop a whole setting approach towards online safety in line with national guidance. The document can be used to facilitate conversations between educational settings and external visitors to develop children and young people digital literacy skills and parental awareness. Following use of the document, you have an opportunity to feedback directly to the UKCCIS Education Working Group in the form of an online survey. All feedback will be considered and a final version of the guidance produced later this year.
This one page summary document has been designed for all teaching and non – teaching staff in schools and colleges. It provides an overview to frontline staff on how to respond to incidences involving ‘sexting. The full advice document ‘Sexting in Schools and colleges’ complements the DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance and the non-statutory Searching, Screening and Confiscation guidance for schools.
The UKCCIS Education Group has developed guidance for school governors to help governing boards support their school leaders to keep children safe online. Governors can use it to: gain a basic understanding of the school’s current approach to keeping children safe online; learn how to improve this approach where appropriate; and find out about tools which can be used to improve the approach. The document includes examples of good and outstanding practice, as well as identifying when governors should be concerned. This guidance is non-statutory and should be read alongside the Department for Education’s Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance.
The UKCCIS Education Group has produced advice for schools and colleges on responding to incidents of ‘sexting.’ The advice aims to support them in tackling the range of issues which these incidents present including responding to disclosures, handling devices and imagery, risk assessing situations and involving other agencies. The advice also contains information about preventative education, working with parents and reporting imagery to providers. This advice is non-statutory and should be read alongside the Department for Education’s Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance and non-statutory Searching, Screening and Confiscation advice for schools.