Although we don’t allow the children much screen time at Little Acorns, when we do use iPads or the computer we always talk to the children about online safety. At this young age we teach the following online rules:
- Only go online with a grown up
- Be kind online (we use Rickie to help us with this)
- Keep information about me safe
- Only press buttons on the internet that I understand
- Tell a grown up if something makes me unhappy on the internet.
When we are conducting an internet search, we always keep the screen facing away from the children so we can check the content etc first and we explain this to the children. We don’t use youtube unless it has been 100% adult checked first so to find videos that the children have requested (e.g. a song or a steam train) we would use kids youtube. We have all the ‘parent protection’ filters on to prevent pop ups. If an advert should get through, we would turn the screen until we can move past it.
Please see the following websites for more information about keeping children safe online.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to speak to your child’s key person or the manager.
Sources of information for parents:-
E-safety tips for parents of under 5’s – www.internetmatters.org
Safe Search Engines – Swiggle and Kids-Search. Safe search settings can also be activated on Google and YouTube