This week the college delivered a series of internet safety workshops in a bid to educate and ensure all of our students know the importance of staying safe online.
The workshops and presentations were delivered to all of our new first years and also to the Transition Year students on Tuesday morning by Pat McKenna, founder of the cyber safety company, childwatch.ie.
The risks for children online are ever-increasing with easy access to the internet. This makes educating our students about the risks involved when online even more important.
Even more so when recent surveys suggest that half of all teenagers in Ireland hide their online history from their parents and that one in 10 children have met someone in person that they first made contact with online.
Please read the following ten tips for staying safe online and ensure that your son/daughter is aware of them.
1) Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number.
2) Think very carefully before posting any 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.
3) Keep your privacy settings as high as possible
4) Never give out your passwords
5) Don’t befriend people you don’t know.
6) Don’t meet up with anyone you’ve met online.Speak to your parent or carer about people suggesting you do!
7) Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are
8) Think carefully about what you say before you post something online
9) Respect other people’s views, even if you don’t agree with someone else’s views doesn’t mean you need to be rude
10) If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or worried: leave the website, turn off your computer if you want to and tell a trusted adult immediate
We urge all parents to use these tips as an opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of staying safe online and agree together how best to do this.
We hope that all of our students learned a great deal from the safety talks and we thank Ms Williams for organising this important safety event.
