5 of the Best Safer Internet Day Teaching Resources

Today’s kids are growing up surrounded by technology, with phones, tablets and pretty much everything connected to the internet almost anywhere. We’re all well aware of some of the amazing advances this brings, just as we know the pitfalls.

There’s been plenty of talk on things like social media and mental health and how internet use might affect your students.

There’s been helpful discussions answering questions like ‘how much screen time is too much?’ and ‘how you can ensure children’s digital usage is healthy?’

And we’ve also had handy advice on things like teaching online safety with children and phones and how resiliance, rather than resistance, to social media use could be key.

But technology and the online world is forever growing and changing, which is why Safer Internet Day is still such an important thing. So here are some of the best and most helpful resources available on line for you to use

1 | Safer Internet Day 2019

The aim of Safer Internet Day is to inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively.

This year in the UK, Safer Internet Day will focus on how consent works in an online context and will ask young people to explore how they ask, give, and receive consent online. This could be in their friendships or relationships, how they take and share images and videos or how they manage their privacy and data.

The campaign encourages young people to explore how the internet works, who owns the information that is shared on it, and how they can actively take ownership of digital spaces.

How you can support the day:

• Register as a supporter
  Join the 1,000+ organisations across the UK who deliver activities for Safer Internet Day each year, from tech companies, banks and football clubs, to schools, police services and charities across the UK!
• Use the Campaign Toolkit
  Help us spread the word about Safer Internet Day 2019 by using our campaign toolkit which includes; social media assets, blog post, and images
• Use the Education packs
  These packs look at consent online and are designed to be used in education settings with a range of ages

Check out the site here.

2 | Stop, think…do I consent?

In keeping with the focus Safer Internet Day 2019 (how consent works in an online context) Barefoot Computing has created a brand new resource for upper-KS2 called Stop, think…do I consent?.

In this activity, pupils learn about the terms and conditions of a variety of social media organisations, and reflect on the personal information which people consent to ‘giving away’ when they sign up to such websites.

Pupils create a ‘data gift’ which they can place next to their computer, to remind them of the importance of knowing what they are consenting to.

The lesson is continued at home as pupils become the teacher and ask their older siblings, parents or carers to reflect on what personal data they too might be giving away in their data gift.

Pupil objectives:

• To know what consent means when we agree to terms and conditions online
• To know the rights we give to social media organisations to use our personal information
• To understand the value our personal information has to social media organisations

Download this new resource here.

3 | Verifying online sources lesson plan

A good understanding of digital literacy needs to be at the heart of any school’s internet safety and responsible use programme.

The reason for this is simple: the critical questions a child must ask to verify the accuracy of a digital source – whether it is text, an image or a movie – are the same as those he needs to consider each time he comes into contact with another person online.

In this lesson, we will think about some activities best suited to upper primary that will get children thinking about and questioning digital sources.

Download this free lesson plan here.

4 | Internet safety

Obviously, in today’s world, one of the most crucial elements of child safety is making sure they’re not exposed to harm online.

At internetmatters.org you’ll find info on inappropriate content, cyberbullying, identity theft and more.

The advice and school resource sections are separated into age ranges too, so you can find something specific for your class.

Check out the site here.

5 | Google’s ‘Be Internet Legends’

Making sure children get the full benefits of our connected online world, while protecting them from all kinds of content and threats is a fine line to walk.

And the internet moves so fast it’s hard to keep up. Whether it’s identity theft, fake news, cyberbullying, phishing scams or just inappropriate content there’s always something to keep an eye on.

Thankfully, Google is taking this kind of thing seriously with it’s new site full of information and resources for schools and students to educate children in responsible internet use.

It’s been created in association with Parentzone, The PSHE Association and Internet Matters too, to ensure that every element of the programme addresses things that families and teachers need to know.

Check it all out here.

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