Online Safety.

Information on who to contact regarding safeguarding/child protection issues out of school hours and during school holidays:

Bedford Borough

You can contact us at the Integrated Front Door (previously known as MASH) by phone:

Call 01234 718700 (office hours)

Call 0300 300 8123 (out of hours)

Central Bedfordshire

Concerned about a child or young person?

Call 0300 300 8585 (office hours).

For out of hours reports call 0300 300 8123

MASH (Milton Keynes multi-agency Safeguarding Hub)

If you are concerned about the safety or well-being of a child the MASH team brings together professionals from partner agencies to deal with safeguarding/child protection concerns.
Contact
During office hours – 01908 253169/70
Emergency social team out of office hours – 01908 265545

Childline

A free private and confidential service to help anyone under 19 in the UK with any issues they are going through.

Contact

Telephone – 0800 1111

NSPCC

A leading children’s charity fighting to end child abuse in the UK.

Contact

Telephone – 0808 8005000

Young Minds

The UK's leading charity fighting for children and young people's mental health.

Contact

Telephone - 0808 802 5544

Winstons Wish

Winston's wish offers bereavement support. You can contact Winston's wish via email on ask@winstonswish or use their online chat. You can also text WW to 85258.

Kooth

Kooth (which is sponsored by the NHS) offers online mental health support for young people.

 

Online Safety Advice

Whilst the internet can be an extremely valuable resource, it does come with risks which we must carefully manage. Please see below the advice from the UK Safer Internet Centre:

The internet is an amazing resource which enables children and young people to connect, communicate and be creative in a number of different ways, on a range of devices.

However, the internet is always changing, and being able to keep up to date with your children’s use of technology can be a challenge.

You may sometimes feel that your children have better technical skills than you do, however children and young people still need advice and protection when it comes to managing their lives online.

Issues that your child may encounter on the internet will vary depending on their age and online activities. We have grouped potential online risks into these 3 categories.

Conduct: children may be at risk because of their own behaviour, for example, by sharing too much information

Children need to be aware of the impact that their online activity can have on both themselves and other people, and the digital footprint that they create on the internet. It’s easy to feel anonymous online and it’s important that children are aware of who is able to view, and potentially share, the information that they may have posted. When using the internet, it’s important to keep personal information safe and not share it with strangers. Discuss with your child the importance of reporting inappropriate conversations, messages, images and behaviours and how this can be done.

Content: age-inappropriate or unreliable content can be available to children

Some online content is not suitable for children and may be hurtful or harmful. This is true for content accessed and viewed via social networks, online games, blogs and websites. It’s important for children to consider the reliability of online material and be aware that it might not be true or written with a bias. Children may need your help as they begin to assess content in this way. There can be legal consequences for using or downloading copyrighted content, without seeking the author’s permission.

Contact: children can be contacted by bullies or people who groom or seek to abuse them

It is important for children to realise that new friends made online may not be who they say they are and that once a friend is added to an online account, you may be sharing your personal information with them. Regularly reviewing friends lists and removing unwanted contacts is a useful step. Privacy settings online may also allow you to customise the information that each friend is able to access. If you have concerns that your child is, or has been, the subject of inappropriate sexual contact or approach by another person, it’s vital that you report it to the police via the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (www.ceop.police.uk). If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, this can also be reported online and offline. Reinforce with your child the importance of telling a trusted adult straight away if someone is bullying them or making them feel uncomfortable, or if one of their friends is being bullied online.

Please also see advice guides from National Online Safety on key social media and internet platforms that young people may use:

If your child does experience inappropriate content online, report it to the website it appears on. You can also report it to a Child Protection Advisor via the CEOP.  Click here for details.

General Online Safety

A wide range of Esafety help and resources to help parents support their child online are available below:

Home Internet
Social Media
Cyberbullying
Online Gaming
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