Thursday 19 th November 2009

What is Fronter?

How do we use it at West Pennard? Every child from Y2-6 has their own web space in Fronter. They can customise their homepage with details about themselves such as their likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests. They can view other children's pages as well as those of the class and ‘guest’ rooms.

The children use Fronter in a variety of ways…

To share aspects of their lives… …such as photographs of pets or favourite holidays.

To share work they’ve done in school… …such as video clips, interactive games, animations, sound files or written work.

To communicate with one another in a safe environment outside of school.

Fronter is also used as a means of guiding your child’s learning. We do this in a number of ways…

By having a standard ‘landing page’ across the classes for ease of navigation.

By publishing a collection of links to various online games and activities to support your child’s learning outside of school.

What are the benefits of using Fronter? Children are safe from potential hazards associated with other social networking sites as it is essentially a ‘walled garden’ Families can share their child’s learning on the Internet Children have an audience Using Fronter as a way of developing wider e- Sense

What are the potential problems of using Fronter? Potential for cyber bullying Unsuitable content displayed or stumbled upon Access to computers and skills Ageing hardware

What have we done to counter any potential problems? - room monitors

E-safety or ‘e-Sense’ taught as part of the curriculum What are your children doing online?

Children’s use of the internet PARENTS Mostly & web for research YOUNG PEOPLE Interactive chat, IM, Music, Games, Blog 28% of parents who use the internet describe themselves as beginners compared with only 7% of children

Children’s use of the internet WEB v 1.0WEB v 2.0 Consuming+ Creating Corporate + Personal Separate media + Converged media Static + Truly interactive Downloading+ Uploading

Potential risks 73% of online adverts are not clearly labelled making it difficult for children and adults to recognise them 57% of 9-19 yr olds have come into contact with online pornography accidentally. 4 in 10 pupils aged 9-19 trust most of the information on the internet. 1/3 of young people have received unwanted sexual or nasty comments online. Only 7% of parents think their child has received such comments. ContentContactCommerce  Inaccurate and harmful  Adult content  Illegal content  Inappropriate contact  Cyberbullying  Sex offenders  Privacy  Advertising & information  Invasive software

The problems with ‘contact’ No real knowledge of who you are talking to, especially if ‘swapping friends’ Providing personal information to ‘strangers’ Pictures Home address, telephone number etc Peer pressure to publish personal information These sites are viewable from across the Internet The sites and any personal information published can be misused Easy to publish hurtful or harmful information

What can you do? Dialogue –Know what your children do online –Ask them to teach you to use the internet (should you need to) Supervision – location of computer Ground rules –Keep personal information private –How do you expect the internet to be used in your house? Systems –Anti virus / spyware –Parental monitoring

Parental Controls Windows 7 – control panel/user accounts and family safety

Parental Controls Windows Vista – (similar to Windows 7) You can... -restrict access to certain sites/programs/games. -produce an activity report and refine your controls accordingly -set time limits / times of the day in which they can use the computer

Parental Controls Windows XP You can... -set up user accounts. -restrict certain types of website / content

Parental Controls From security software provider

How children can get round this.... -If you leave your machine on without a timed lock out they can alter the controls -Mobile phones and the internet -Wifi – have they got a PSP or DS?

Resources available Know IT All for parents The following may be useful – – – – – –