Learner Safeguarding Information

Online reputation

Update Thursday 31st October 2019

 

Your digital footprint is the mark that you leave behind when using the internet and can shape your online reputation. Your digital footprints are made up of the content you create, post and share; as well as the content that others post, and share, with you and about you.

Your digital footprints can be positive or negative and affects how people see you now or in the future. Use our simple check list to help manage and maintain your online reputation.

1. Search yourself online:do you know what is online about you? Do a simple web search of your name and see what you can find. If you find something you aren’t happy with, take the necessary steps to get that content removed. Remember if your Facebook or Twitter pages appear you can change this by adjusting your privacy settings.
2. Check privacy settings: make sure you know what information you are sharing on the websites you use, in particular on social networking sites. Most social networking sites have privacy settings to help you manage the content you share and who you share it with; you can decide if you want your posts to be shared with your online friends and followers only or with the public. Keep in mind that your friend’s content and their settings can also affect your digital footprint.
3. Think before you post: before you post that funny picture of your friend, or make that joke about someone on Twitter, ask yourself do you want everyone to see it; friends, family, grandparents, future employers? Would you be happy for others to post that type of content about you? You should be proud of everything you post online, remember once it is online it could potentially be there forever!
4. Deactivate and delete: when you stop using a social networking profile or website, it’s a good idea to deactivate or delete your account. This will mean the content is no longer live and should not be searchable online; it will also remove the risk of these accounts being hacked without you knowing.
5. Make a positive footprint: we hear a lot about the negative footprints left behind online. The best way to keep your online reputation in check is to use your time online to get creative and create a positive footprint.  For example why not write a blog to promote all the great things you are doing, fundraise for a charity using an online sponsorship page or create a video to teach others something new.

 

For further information go to https://www.childnet.com/young-people/secondary/hot-topics/online-reputation

 

 

Sex, Relationships and the Internet

Update Thursday 24th October 2019

 

SEX, RELATIONSHIPS and the INTERNET……three things that get a little complicated! The fabulous ‘thinkuknow’ website has a great link that supports sharing advice, information, contact numbers and facts https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/14_plus/. Technology makes it easier for us to ‘connect’, but it also has the ability to increase peer pressure.

The article below is also from thinkuknow. Take time to read and then follow the link previously mentioned if you required further information on how to tackle this problem.

 

Selfies: the naked truth

Sharing a picture of yourself takes seconds. You can even add a cute filter and before a minute has passed, loads of people who you may or may not know have viewed your selfie.

The social media platforms made just for sharing photos are getting bigger and bigger. Instagram has over 1 billion active users and there are 20,000 images shared on Snapchat every second!

Lots of people share photos of themselves regularly – like holiday snaps, silly selfies, or group shots with friends. Some people might think that sharing more revealing photos, like naked or semi naked (nude) pics happens all the time too. But that’s actually not the case – research shows it’s not something that most young people do. Although not everyone’s doing it, you might be thinking about sending a naked selfie, either:

• To a boyfriend or girlfriend
• As a way to flirt with someone you like
• To make your friends laugh
• Or because you feel pressured to

Whatever the reason, there are always risks involved, particularly if you’re not doing it because you want to. There’s always a chance that an image could be shared further, which makes it important to say no if you don’t feel comfortable.

If you have already shared something you’re worried about, it’s never too late to get help. Check out our advice on ‘What if I’ve already sent a nude image?’.

3 ways to say ‘no’

Saying ‘no’ is not always easy, especially if it’s to someone you really care about. There are a few different ways that you can say ‘no’ – choose whichever way you’re most comfortable with. Here are some suggestions for what you could say in different situations:

• Someone you’re in a relationship with: Let them know you’re not comfortable, if they respect and value you, they’ll understand.
• Someone you know: Keep it light – Zipit app has helped lots of young people to say no in a funny way.
• Someone you don’t know: Ignore, block and report, so they can’t continue to contact you.

 

Peer on Peer Abuse

Update Thursday 17th October 2019

 

What is peer-on-peer abuse?

Peer-on-peer abuse is any form of physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse, and coercive control exercised between children, and within children’s relationships (both intimate and non-intimate), friendships, and wider peer associations.

Peer-on-peer abuse can take various forms, including (but not limited to): serious bullying (including cyberbullying), relationship abuse, domestic violence and abuse, child sexual exploitation, youth and serious youth violence, harmful sexual behaviour and/or prejudice-based violence including, but not limited to, gender-based violence.

Online peer-on-peer abuse is any form of peer-on-peer abuse with a digital element, for example, sexting, online abuse, coercion and exploitation, peer-on-peer grooming, threatening language delivered via online means, the distribution of sexualised content, and harassment.

It is really important that we all take time and care to tackle peer-on-peer abuse and ensure that it doesn’t happen in any context. If you are aware of peer-on-peer abuse taking place then please follow our safeguarding referral processes by emailing t.price@attfe.org.uk.

 

Email Scams and Password Protection

Update Thursday 10th October 2019

Safeguarding Alert: Porn Email Scam

Over three billion fake emails are sent out each day, and many of them are phishing emails aiming to trick people into passing over their passwords and other data, especially for their bank accounts.

An insidious and alarming version of a phishing email is the ‘porn email scam’. In this scam a victim is told that the attacker has video of the person watching illegal pornographic content, sometimes even titled ‘I know you’re a pedo’ (sic). The email includes the demand that unless an amount of money is paid by BitCoin, the attackers will release the images to everyone on the victim’s contact list.

There are an estimated 8m different sextortion emails and over 200m compromised accounts that could be targeted. Could yours be one of them?

If you are sent one of these ‘porn scams’:

• Don’t panic, take a step back – Stop, Pause and Think.
• Do your research – Copy and paste the text into Google.
• Take action to protect yourself – Think about contacting the police.
• Improve your digital security – Change passwords and check your email security.
• Don’t stay silent – Talk to someone or call The Samaritans.

We have received several of these emails into our office and alarmingly, in one, the subject line was a password that we have regularly used. As you can imagine this was a huge shock.

There are many ways that passwords may be collected, but a data breach is the most common way that millions of email addresses and password pairs get out into the ‘wild’.

One way to find out whether your email address has ever been comprised is to go to the website ‘Have I Been Pwnd’ https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and enter your email address. When I entered one of my private email addresses I found I had been ‘pwned’ on seven occasions including these well known sites:

Adobe (2018)
Animoto (2018)
Bitly (2014)
Canva (2019)

More information, including examples of these scam emails can be found here: https://shop.ineqe.com/blogs/news/safeguarding-alert-porn-email-scam

Download a Sextortion Infographic: https://cofense.com/sextortion-infographic/

Test Your Password

‘How secure is my password’ is website where you can check how quickly ‘hackers’ would take to guess your password. The top ten passwords people use are:

123456
password
123456789
12345678
12345
111111
1234567
sunshine
qwerty
iloveyou
(Source: Digital Trends https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/top-100-worst-passwords-2018/)

According to ‘How secure is my password’ all these passwords can be guessed ‘instantly’. One easy way to strengthen a password is to make it longer, and add at least one special character like ! or ?. Simply adding an ! to sunshine in the above list would now take 2 hours to crack, two exclamation marks would take 4 days. By adding the name of the site you’re on, you could strengthen your password so it would need 143 trillion years to crack.

sunshine – instantly
sunshine! – 2 hours
sunshine!! – 4 days
sunshine!!sainsburys – 143 TRILLION YEARS!!

Have I Been Pwnd – https://haveibeenpwned.com/
How secure is my password – https://howsecureismypassword.net/

 

Jessie & Friends: online safety education

Update Thursday 3rd October 2019

Keeping safe online is hard for anyone, especially a young person. Having such easy access to the internet through computers and mobile devices simply increases risk. It is therefore really important that we all take time to ensure that we know how to keep ourselves, families and friends ‘safe’ when accessing the world wide web.

Below is a link which is aimed at Primary school children, but remains highly relevant to us all. It shares very basic internet safety which even if we already ‘know’ provides a strong reminder as to what we need to do to continually keep safe online.

 

Jessie & Friends: online safety education (ThinkUKnow)

Introducing the idea of a safer internet to younger children can be quite challenging. Jessie & Friends is a series of three animations from online safety specialist at the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command.

The videos follow the adventures of Jessie, Tia and Mo as they begin to navigate the online world, watching videos, sharing pictures and playing games. A storybook accompanies each episode, to help adults keep the conversation going with the children.

Find the resources here: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/jessie-and-friends