Keeping Young People Safe Online

Madeley Academy recognises that technology is an intrinsic part of modern-day life that is well-established in both education and the workplace, as a valuable tool to improve productivity and learning. As a forward-thinking academy, we embrace the use of technology to support our students in preparing them for further education and industry, whilst recognising the necessity in ensuring that those that use it are both aware and prepared to ensure their continued safety and well-being.

Students are required to read and sign the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) before making use of our ICT facilities, which can be viewed by clicking here.

When at school, students and staff can enjoy a filtered and monitored internet connection. Where monitoring identifies someone who may be vulnerable or at risk, this is passed to the Safeguarding team to provide the necessary support and training, where appropriate, parents will be informed as part of this process.

As well as learning about E-Safety in their ICT lessons, students get more targeted input during assemblies and tutor time.

Websites offering important guidance and resources regarding E-Safety can be found in the ‘Useful Links’ section of this page.

E-Safety Social Media Checklists for Parents and Students

To help support our parents and carers, in supporting their children, we have provided "Checklists” for eight Social Media platforms, which parents can use to help guide their children, and themselves, into keeping safe online.

The links below and include four of the major Social Media providers which are: -

Facebook Checklist Twitter Checklist Instagram Checklist Snapchat Checklist

TikTok Checklist Netflix Checklist Yubo Checklist Roblox Checklist

A parent’s guide and online safety tips to support children navigating secondary school

Although students are becoming increasingly confident online, they are more likely to experience online issues as they get older. Find out what these are and how you can support them with the below online safety guides:

A parent’s guide to navigating secondary school

Online safety tips for parents of 11-13 Year Olds

Online safety tips for parents of teenagers 14+ Year Olds

Online safety tips for Students

Don’t share your password with anyone and review it regularly.
Only accept friend requests from people you know and trust.
Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your parents, teachers, or future employers to see.
Learn about privacy settings and review them regularly.

360 Safe

The 360-degree safe online safety self-review tool is intended to help schools review their online safety policy and practices. The academy is working towards and committed to achieving the 360 online safety mark given to schools / academies that are able to show good practice in their Online Safety policy and procedures.

Sexting & Sextortion

Sharing nudes is when someone sends a naked or semi-naked image or video to another person. Sharing nudes is sometimes called ‘sexting’, however this term is often used by young people to talk about sharing sexual messages and not imagery.

Over the last few years, there has been a rise in young people being offered money or electronic gift cards on online apps, sites and gaming platforms in exchange for sending nudes or semi-nude images or videos of themselves. This is sometimes called ‘sextortion’.

If you or your child are concerned about sexting or sextortion, you can seek help and advice from the information sheets linked below:

So you got naked online factsheet for students

Sexting – parent factsheet https://www.iwf.org.uk/resources/sextortion/parents-and-carers/

Sextortion factsheet (National cyber centre)

Child Sexual Exploitation - Online Grooming

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a type of sexual abuse. It happens when a child or young person is coerced, manipulated or deceived into sexual activity in exchange for things that they may need or want like gifts, drugs, money, status and affection. Children and young people are often tricked into believing they're in a loving and consensual relationship so the sexual activity may appear consensual. This is called grooming and is a type of abuse. They may trust their abuser and not understand that they're being abused. CSE does not always involve physical contact, and can also occur through the use of technology.

When a child is sexually exploited online they might be persuaded or forced to:

send or post sexually explicit images of themselves
film or stream sexual activities
have sexual conversations.

Once an abuser has images, video or copies of conversations, they might use threats and blackmail to force a young person to take part in other sexual activity. They may also share the images and videos with others or circulate them online.

Advice for students: https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/online-grooming/

Advice for parents: https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Internet-Matters-Online-Grooming-guide-Jan23.pdf