Every week e-safety adviser Alan Mackenzie sends me weekly updates. They are useful teaching resources but also parent guides to keep you up to date with current trends.
Here are a few tips from this week’s updates:
Article – We’re Not the Anxious Generation
A few days ago I read an article written by Maximilian Milovidov, a youth online safety advocate studying psychology, who is also a TikTok Youth Council member and a former Youth Ambassador to the Children’s Commissioner for England. In his article, Maximilian states that there’s a growing chorus saying phones are “breaking childhood.” He pushes back on this: young people’s experiences are mixed, and the impact of tech depends far more on how it’s used than overly-simplistic things like screen-time totals.
Crucially, he calls out how often adults talk about young people rather than with them. When we invite students into the conversation, especially those who are more vulnerable or whose voices are easily missed (SEND, care-experienced, LGBTQ+ students, we discover important nuance: for some, online spaces are genuine lifelines for identity, support and belonging.
We all know this, but do we practice it? For example, in youth councils and peer-led groups is there wide representation? Are there students who can raise concerns and ask questions that others may not have thought about? After all, these are the most vulnerable children, their voice needs to be heard.
You can read the full article, ‘We’re Not the Anxious Generation’ HERE.
For Parents – Cyberbullying Advice
Children being bullied online, particularly in games and via messaging apps, remains one of the top concerns of many parents and their children. Internet Matters have a range of guides and articles to support parents and carers which I have listed below:
- Talking to children and conversation tips for ages 6-10, 11-13, 14-17 and vulnerable children – HERE
- What is cyberbullying and what are the signs – HERE
- Helpful ways to prevent cyberbullying – HERE
- How to deal with cyberbullying – HERE
- Parents experiences of cyberbullying – HERE
- Useful resource – HERE
