This week, our school joined others nationwide to celebrate Safer Internet Day 2025, the largest global online safety campaign. This year's theme, ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online,’ focuses on teaching children and young people how to identify and avoid scams, and highlights available support.
Scams can take many forms and target anyone, including young people. You may think that your child would be able to spot an online scammer, but the truth is that they are incredibly convincing and hard to spot. They often involve fake profiles and identities to target people. You may have heard this referred to as ‘catfishing.’ If your child has been targeted by a scam online and they have been made to do something that they didn’t want to, then they are not to blame, they are not in trouble, and support is available.
As Safer Internet Day 2025 falls during half term, we encourage you to join us in celebrating by continuing the conversation at home about spotting, responding to, and reporting online scams. Here are some helpful resources: ·
- You can complete the UK Safer Internet Centre’s interactive quizzes with your child about this theme.·
- The UK Safer Internet Centre has created resources for use with children and young people about this year’s theme. These were designed for learning settings but can be adapted to use with your child. You can find these here. ·
- Read the UK Safer Internet Centre’s tops tips for parents and carers here. ·
- You can share the UK Safer Internet Centre’s top tips for children and young people with your child. ·
- You can visit the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland’s Online Safety Hub website for lots of advice and support about how to keep your child safer online. It is split into two sections, one for adults and one for young people. It signposts to local support if help is needed.
- You may also like to use one of these prompts to start a conversation with your child:·
- What’s your favourite thing to do online?·
- Have you ever seen a scam online? How did it make you feel?·
- What signs would you look out for to spot a scam?·
- What advice would you give to your friends about scams?·
- Who would you talk to if you saw a scam online?·
- What more can I do to help you feel safe online?
- A key part of protecting children and young people from online harms is through preventative education. By talking about this in school and at home, we can all work towards keeping children safe when they are online. Celebrating Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity for you to re-emphasise the online safety messages we deliver throughout the year.
- If you have any concerns or questions about keeping your child safe online, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher, Mr Duddy or Mrs Page, our Designated Safeguarding Lead.
