It has been brought to our attention that some of our children have access to Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms even though the permitted minimum age to use these sites is 13 years old, according to their terms and conditions.

Newtown C of E Primary School is committed to keeping our children safe and to promoting the safe, responsible use of the Internet.  As such, we feel it is our responsibility to raise this particular issue as a concern.

Parental responsibility - We feel it is important to point out to parents the risks of underage use of such sites, so you can make an informed decision as to whether to allow your child to have a access or not at the moment.  Should you decide to allow your child of any age to have a social media profile we strongly advise you to:

• Check their profile is set to private and that only friends can see information that is posted;
• Monitor your child’s use and talk to them about safe and appropriate online behaviour such as not sharing personal information and not posting offensive messages or photos;
• If they use Facebook ask them to install the CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) application from www.facebook.com/clickceop on their profile. This places a bookmark on their profile to CEOP and the Report Abuse button which has been known to deter offenders;
• Set up your own profile so you understand how the site works and ask them to have you as a friend on their profile so you know what they are posting online;

• Make sure your child understands the basic E-safety rules that we have learnt about at school