6 Social networking
- Safe: The National Primary school Certificate in Safe Social Networking, http://www.digitalme.co.uk/safe/ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
- Social networking, http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/control/social/
- Instant messaging, http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/control/im/
- Chatrooms, http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/control/chatrooms/
- Game playing, http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/control/gaming/
- Habbo hotel, http://www.habbo.com/
- Club penguin, http://www.clubpenguin.com/
- Super social safety: Habbo… good or bad? http://supersocialsafety.blogspot.com/2009/12/habbo-good-or-bad.html
- Super social safety: Club Penguin http://supersocialsafety.blogspot.com/2009/11/club-penguin-is-kids-social-site.html
- Jigsaw: assembly for 8–10-year-olds, http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_o8auwnJtqE
Safe is a new programme of practical activities to develop primary children's skills, self confidence and safety awareness when using social networking sites. By completing the free programme pupils gain a Safe certificate as evidence of their learning. Start the Safe certificate now or join in the discussion by clicking on the URL above.
Sign up to join Thinkuknow http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk and look at the resources to familiarize yourself with them. Watch the film called Jigsaw and think about how you could introduce it into your class. There are a range of resources available from this site but thee is a bigger range, including lesson plans, if you have done CEOP training as a teacher. Investigate whether anyone at your local authority is able to provide this training for all staff in your school.
Social networking may play a big part in pupils’ lives. They often learn the skills from older siblings or maybe their parents. They may not have been taught how to protect themselves whilst working on sites such as Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin or even Facebook. Are children’s popular social networking places safe, fun places to visit? The last two sites offer a teen’s thoughts on these sites as part of the Digiteen project.
Ideas for activities with children
Ask a child each week to demonstrate their favourite social networking site for as long as there are new sites being offered. As long as they are willing, allow them to log-in on the interactive whiteboard in front of the class and to discuss what is on the site and how it works. Ask pupils to spot any danger areas and how to deal with them. Create a class wiki with screen shots and information bites from the sessions.
Reflection
Think about how to incorporate some of the appropriate resources into your PHSE lessons and add your ideas to the wiki.
All of the children’s social networking sites give the pupils avatars. Does using an avatar protect them or make them more vulnerable? Does the clothes worn by the avatar make them more vulnerable?
Does the name they give their avatar make them vulnerable?
Are Sexy Sue 16, Purple Kitty 15 or Diablo Dave 14 suitable names for pupil avatars?
Write your thoughts about names on the wiki. Could you influence pupils’ choices?
5 Reliability of information