Online Safety - Coming Soon!
We’ve been busy these past few weeks, finalising scripts and filming for our new Online Safety series!
This is a series we know lots of people have been waiting for, and we are so excited we will be able to share it with you very soon. It’s currently in editing stages and we will be bringing it to you as soon as possible.
Keep an eye on our social media for countdowns!
In the meantime, you can learn more about the series and see some behind the scenes fun and hear from our young people and their parents right here.
What problems are we trying to solve?
We want our community to be able to make use of the internet and get all the benefits that their typical peers do. Everyone is vulnerable online, with scams, catfishing, and unsafe online content. It can be even harder for individuals with learning disabilities to understand when to ignore or report things online, and to deal with inappropriate content. Stories like Alexandra’s are, sadly, not uncommon. So we need to empower our community with strategies to stay safe online.
That’s where our Online Safety series comes in…
Left to right from top left: Lee, Laura, Jo, Hannah, Tom, Maya, Traci, Alfie.
Day 1
Traci from iVengers arrived (all the way from Derbyshire to Kent!) to be our expert presenter in this series.
On Day 1, she was joined by our wonderful Learning for Life ambassador, Maya, who is a familiar face to Learning for Life users.
Maya and Traci were joined by the awesome Alfie, who had never done anything like this before, but took to it like a fish to water.
Left to right from top left: Lee, Hannah, Traci, Matt, Jo, Blythe, Laura, Lois.
Day 2
We had Blythe and Lois joining us to be presenters alongside Traci on Day 2. Blythe might also be familiar to Learning for Life users, working with Tailfeather Dance featuring in the How To… Be Healthy series doing dancing, yoga, and more! Lois, just like Alfie, was brand new to filming, and absolutely smashed it.
All of our young people put so much hard work in, not only in learning their lines beforehand, but also with the autocue on the day. This can be a big challenge, especially with our community’s visual acuity issues, but they all spoke up when they needed something changed. Working with our young people always brings us back to the individuals we are serving, which is so valuable when we go through the editing process.
Left to right: Orla, Lucy, Jessica, Lucy McLaren.
Day 3
We switched it up on Day 3, and filmed some classroom sessions with young people, like the ones you see in Respectful Relationships with Kirsty and the Down’s Syndrome Scotland members. For this series, we were joined by Lucy McLaren, Employment & Life Skills Coordinator at Down Syndrome Cheshire, who facilitated sessions discussing different elements of online safety with a group of young people. Orla, Lucy, and Jessica were fantastic and there were some great discussions which will be helpful for others doing this series in groups.
So, what’s actually in this series? We have videos on a wide range of issues with online safety.
Video 1: The Internet - what is it?
Video 2: Online Information - what is online? What information might websites ask for?
Video 3: Time Spent Online - impact of spending too much time online
Video 4: Effects of Online Behaviour - acting differently online and the impact of this
Video 5: Age Restrictions - what sorts of games have age restrictions and why?
Video 6: Reporting - what to report and how to do it
Video 7: Online and Offline Relationships - treating people the same on and offline
Video 8: Real or Fake? - exploring fake information and content online
Video 9: Rules for Being Safe Online - key rules to remember
Video 10: Assessing Information Online - fake news, scams
Video 11: Pornography (recommend educators view first) - what is pornography? Why people might seek it out, the harms, and other ways to learn about love, sex, and relationships
SAFER checklist
As always, we are ensuring that this series doesn’t just discuss the topics, but provides practical solutions and strategies for learners to use when they come across problems online. For example, we refer to this SAFER checklist, which outlines some of the key rules to ensure that learners are safe and happy online.
Other skills we help develop include:
✔ What to report online
✔ How to report things online
✔ How to say when you don’t want to play a game that is too old for you
✔ How to pause and think about someone’s feelings before posting online
✔ How to consider if content online might be fake
✔ How to make changes to your routine to include less time online
This series has been made alongside iVengers, who create resources and train educators and parent carers in online safety. They have a ‘special agents’ branch for individuals with SEND. Alongside their expertise, we have contributed our experience within our community to inform the teaching in this series.
Make sure you’re signed up to Learning for Life to gain access to the Online Safety series as soon as it’s launched!