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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

Useful resources for Parents and Carers

08 September 2015

Turning to celebs to look for role models is a tricky business, especially when it comes to admiring their appearance. For many actresses, athletes, and artists, keeping their bodies slim or muscular is part of their job. Plus they have personal trainers, private chefs, stylists, and makeup artists to keep them looking camera-ready whenever they're in the public eye.

 

 

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07 September 2015

Parent Info provides high quality information to parents and carers about their children's wellbeing and resilience. Schools can host the content on their own website and use it in any other ways (in letters to parents etc) that they want.

This service is free and ranges across a wide range of subject matter, from difficult topics about sex, relationships and the internet or body image and peer pressure to broader parenting topics like ‘how much sleep do teenagers need?’

In line with CEOP’s Thinkuknow programme, some of the content covers internet safety, but it all starts from the assumption that young people make little distinction between their online and offline lives and the issues for parents are often the same. The aim is to help parents help their children be discriminating, web-literate and resilient.

 

Go to the site

07 September 2015

The Games Rating Authority (GRA) is the games rating arm of the Video Standards Council and licences the release of video games rated PEGI 12, 16 and 18 in the UK. These ratings are mandatory and enforceable under UK law and cannot be sold or hired to persons below the respective age restrictions.

 

 

28 August 2015

02: 'When it comes to safety, children need us to be aware and involved in what’s going on - both online and offline. And that's why we’ve joined forces with the NSPCC.

Our aim is keep kids safe by helping UK parents and guardians to explore and see the internet as children do - a world that’s creative, fun and exciting - as well as understand the real dangers that exist online.

To do this, we're working together to:

Launch an online safety helpline for parents to call for technical advice.
Bring online safety workshops for parents and carers into schools and workplaces.
Train staff so all O2 stores can help adults with their online safety concerns.
Ultimately, we hope to equip parents and other family members with the knowledge and confidence to chat regularly with their kids about what they're doing online, and with whom.'

 

Access support and resources here

26 August 2015

'There’s no shortage of stories out there about employees getting fired because of what turns up on their private social media accounts. 

But I’d argue that as employers we’re often guilty of taking social media policing too far. It’s common career advice these days to tell recent grads and job hunters to sanitize their social media accounts before starting a job search, expunging photos that might seem unprofessional — from selfies on the beach to shots taken at parties. Recruiters and managers are going to‘check up your social media presence’ the argument goes, so it better look squeaky clean.'

 

Read more here

21 August 2015

Take this moment to consider the five laws of your life online. Like laws of the state, whether or not you choose to learn these laws is irrelevant, as you will be tried by them regardless.

1.
Assume everything you do and say will be made public.

2.
Do not be seduced by privacy settings and passwords, which are temporary illusions that distract from the reality of the previous point.

3.
Understand that context and data are often one and the same. When you enter information on the internet, assume that you include the who (you), the what (the data), the when (the time of data input), the where (the site on which the data is being placed), the how (the device on which you input the data), and the why (the purpose of the site).

4.
Believe that all of your credit card transactions are being kept in a colossal, searchable ledger that one day will be made available for all to study.

5.
Believe that data does not disappear when you delete it.

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