Tier 2 Digital Safeguarding

What is Tier 2 Digital Safeguarding?

Just to be clear, Tier 2 Digital Safeguarding is my term. It is not a recognised OFSTED term or in common use. It is simply my way of recognising a level of digital safeguarding that often goes undetected or unaddressed, either because teachers do not have time to fit it into their busy timetables or perhaps even because they are unaware that the issue exists.

Right, so I don’t have to teach this then? Great. Now, on to maths and English…

No! Stop right there! (*teacher stare*)

You have to address these issues. Not because OFSTED says you have to, but because your children face these issues every day. And in most cases, they face them alone.

What issues are you talking about?

Me telling you that is not as effective as you finding out for yourselves. So I’ll give you a little homework task to complete before you read the next blog post. Don’t worry, this is not a Gap Task*. It will take literally one minute to do.

It’s more suited to KS2 than younger children, but there’s no reason why KS1/FS teachers can’t try it too. Adapt it to suit your class.

Next time you’re in the classroom, remind your children that the classroom is a safe place and that they can answer your questions freely. Then ask them the following questions:

1. If you were watching a YouTube video and they said, “Like and subscribe otherwise tonight 1,000 spiders will crawl over you in your bed,” how many of you would like and subscribe?
2. How many of you have experienced a scam trade in a game like Roblox?
3. How many of you have had an online account hacked or things taken from your account without your permission?
4. If an advert for an app told you that you could get paid for playing games, would you install that app? How many of you have seen ads like that?

Why should I do this?

You deserve to know why I chose those questions, at least.

1. I was in the same room as one of my own children at home when I heard a YouTuber literally say those exact words. I asked my class the next day what they would do and their responses surprised me.
2. One of my own children was silently crying while playing Roblox. I asked her what was wrong and she told me about the scam trade that had just happened to her.
3. In one of our class discussions, one child told me about when someone cleaned out his Roblox account of all the items he had collected over a period of years. He spoke with the kind of smile that belongs to a boy trying valliantly not to cry in front of his friends.
4. This came up in one of my class discussions. I won’t spoil any surprises, but the number of children who had actually been paid by one of these apps was 0.

You might need to discuss issues that arise from these questions afterwards, so make sure you are prepared for that in one way or another. Well discuss this in more detail next time.

James

*actually, that’s exactly what it is, but if I call it that, you won’t do it.