E-Safety Advice

http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/ufiles/Facebook-checklist-Aug2013.pdf .

A printed version can be obtained from:

http://www.swgflstore.com/collections/resources

Thinkuknow – Guide to internet safety and safe surfing for young people:

CEOP – The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

Childnet – helping to make the internet a great and safe place for children

Kidsmart – learn about the internet and being a SMART surfer

Saferinternet – where you can find e-safety tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet

Under 13′s  on Facebook

Despite Facebook’s popularity and ease of use, the terms and conditions of the social networking phenomena clearly state users must be over 13 years old to sign up for an account. This is due to the data protection laws in the U.S. regardless of the nature of the application. A common misconception is that this does not apply to the UK and that therefore it is acceptable for primary school children to be encouraged in its use.

The UK Safer Internet Centre (SWGfL) have very close working links with Facebook and at the Safer Internet Centre National E-safety briefings this year, the advice was as follows:

• It is known under 13′s use Facebook and this is an on-going problem because the environment is not suitable for younger pupils. Continuing to support and educate young people is critical, but we should bear in mind the legalities of under 13′s on Facebook.
• Any under 13 signing up to Facebook does so with a falsified date of birth, which is, technically, fraud, though law enforcement would never be used to deal with this problem.
• Facebook has to comply with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998). The means Facebook may not hold any details of young people under the age of 13 and they may not advertise to this group either. This legal restriction applies to Facebook regardless of where the child is signing up from (America or the rest of the world).
• Conclusion: Facebook is for over 13′s only.