Cyber Safety at Home & School                                  

At Carterton School we work to ensure that your children are safe using the Internet. We are part of Ministry of Education systems which automatically filter inappropriate sites and searches. Students who work on 1:1 Chromebooks are also closely monitored using the Teacher Dashboard app.

Thankfully, we seldom have incidents where students use the Internet inappropriately at school. If it does happen, we take it very seriously and look into why it has happened and how we can avoid it happening again. Students are not allowed to use devices without clear instructions from a staff member. I anything inappropriate is seen, the students are told to close the lid of their device and see an adult immediately.

Unfortunately, from time to time, some students have been known to use social media sites out of school to target their peers, and inevitably these interactions impact on relationships in and out of school.

Do you know that adult social media sites and apps, such as Snapchat, Facebook etc. have an age restriction of 13 years? Some age restrictions are higher and some require parental consent. If your child is younger than this, they must have entered a false age.

Even Google services have a 13 year old age limit, the exception being the school apps for education. You create an account for younger children using the family link.

We know that for many of us YouTube is the go to place for instructions on how to do just about everything. But do you know what your child is watching or what channels they follow? Do you know if they have their own channel and are posting videos? Do  you know what comments they are posting or reacting to? This is an interactive app that we may sometime forget. Some basics to keep your kids safe can be found here or search for parents’ guides.

Staying Safe

The main NZ site for Guidance on Internet safety is netsafe.org.nz which includes pages specifically for parents. This site is recommended by NZ Police on their Online Child Safety page.

Netsafe have an excellent leaflet that you may want to download. It will also be on our Carterton School website.

Our Advice

1. Talk to your child about their Internet and Apps use and what social media they are using.
2. Sit with them and explore together to see what they are doing and to learn from them.
3. Remember, it is reasonable for children of primary/intermediate school age to expect their social media to be checked by a parent.
4. Search out articles which provide adivce such as kidspot.co.nz and kiwifamilies.co.nz
5. If your child receives hurtful or abusive messages on any social media, talk to the other parents concerned and go to the the police for advice if necessary.

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