Top Ten Tips for Staying Safe Online
- Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.
- Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Once you’ve put a picture of yourself online most people can see it and may be able to download it, it’s not just yours anymore.
- Keep your privacy settings as high as possible
- Never give out your passwords
- Don’t befriend people you don’t know
- Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online. Speak to your parent or carer about people suggesting you do
- Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are
- Think carefully about what you say before you post something online
- Respect other people’s views, even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views doesn’t mean you need to be rude
- If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried: leave the website, turn off your computer and tell a trusted adult immediately.
Top Tips for Searching
- Be clear in your online searches try to use more than one word to describe what you are searching for. For example, if you are searching for information on the planet Mercury, entering planet mercury into the search box will better results than just entering Mercury.)
- Take care to spell correctly when typing in a search. Even a small typing error can bring up unwanted results.
- Remember that not all the information in websites returned in searches is reliable. Look in books, ask people who might know, and look up at least three other websites to check your info.
- Make sure you filter your searches online especially if you are doing an image search.
- Bookmark your favourite websites or check your history to make sure you are revisiting the same websites.
- If you see something that upsets you, make sure you turn off the screen or make the window smaller on a laptop and tell an adult as soon as possible.
- There's a lot of information online and not all of it is for kids. You might be surprised to hear that some things online are illegal!
- Ask an adult to install Hector Protector - Visit the thinkuknow website and install Hector Protector so that when you are searching online you always have a friend with you.
Top Ten Tips for Mobile Phone Safety
- Talk to a trusted adult at home or at school.
- Don’t reply to any nasty messages you receive.
- Don’t reply to a text from someone you don’t know.
- Keep the messages you have been sent so you can show them to a trusted adult and make a note of the time and date of the messages or calls you receive.
- Don’t answer calls from withheld numbers or numbers you don’t recognise, let it go to voicemail.
- Block numbers from people who are sending you nasty messages.
- You may be able to change your number.
- Don’t give your mobile number to someone you don’t know.
- Don’t send pictures to someone you don’t know.
- If the problem is serious you can report it to the police, cyber mentors, or childline.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk