Yesterday, Year 5 had the opportunity to take part in an interactive and engaging afternoon learning about E-Safety. The session taught the children about the age restrictions placed on various social media websites, and more importantly, why those websites have age restrictions. More detail was added to this through looking at child friendly versions of the ‘Terms and Conditions’ for sharing sites such as Instagram. The children were shocked to learn that the content which they post online is immediately owned by the site and that the site can sell it and use it in any way which they want without further consent. The session looked at online activity and showed people doing things in real life that they do online; asking strangers to be their friends, showing strangers pictures of themselves on the street, following people down the road and asking a stranger if they would like to be ‘poked’ as you can do on Facebook. Year 5 agreed that these were strange activities in real life and began to understand that it is also strange to do this online.
Throughout the session, the importance of being safe online meant that some children began to question their own online activity. Filters and parental controls were discussed and the children asked questions as to how they could make their online activity safer at home.
It was a productive afternoon and much learning took place in Year 5 about E-Safety.





