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Young people shine online as Childnet announce the winners of the Childnet Film Competition 2016

E-safety charity, Childnet, announced the winners of their seventh annual film competition at a private screening held for the shortlisted schools and industry guests at the BFI Southbank.

Judged by a panel of experts from the BBC, BBFC and the BFI, the two winning schools and the four other finalists will now see their films used as internet safety resources to educate other young people about how to use the internet positively and safely.

Internet Safety and Security Minster Baroness Joanna Shields said:

“The Childnet Film Competition celebrates the positive power of the internet by encouraging young people to take an active role in inspiring each other to leverage the internet for good.

Initiatives like the Childnet Film Competition are incredibly effective at championing internet safety in schools and amongst peers. By encouraging young people to work together, the competition helps empower them to use online mediums to shape a better future for themselves. Congratulations to all of the participants. You are all winners!”

Childnet Education Projects Officer, Becky Nancarrow, said:

“This year’s film competition theme, ‘shine online’, was all about inspiring young people to use the internet for good. Today we not only saw the time and dedication that has gone into creating these films but the passion young people have for creating a better internet for everyone. It’s great then that the young people’s films will continue to have an even wider impact, as they become resources for schools and youth groups to use to educate young people about using the internet positively”.

Founded in 2010 as a way of asking young people to focus on positive use of the internet, the Childnet Film Competition invites schools and youth organisations from across the UK to capture their internet safety messages in a short film. This year, the film competition invited young people to think about how we can all make a positive difference online by supporting young people to ‘shine online’.

With over 120 entries across the two categories, primary and secondary, 5 schools and 1 youth group attended the finalist’s event at the BFI in London before seeing their films on the big screen.

The films were judged by Alice Webb, Director of BBC Children's at the BBC, Joanna van der Meer, Film Tutor and Family Learning Programmer at the BFI Southbank, Keith Chirozva, Childnet Film Competition secondary category winner 2015 and David Austin OBE, Chief Executive at the BBFC, who said:

“Film is an inspiring medium for all ages and for children in particular it brings to life important messages and in making their own films, it allows them to express themselves in a less conventional way than say writing an essay in the classroom. Engaging children in this way creates a memorable experience and helps them take on board ideas and information. On behalf of all the judges I would like to congratulate the Childnet Film Competition winners and the finalist’s on creating fantastic educational resources that will be used in classrooms across the country.”

Taking home the top prize of film equipment for their school was Arundale Primary School winning the primary school entry with “Times have changed” and Wren Academy taking home the top prize for their entry “Hash and Tag” in the secondary category.

Hollie a young person from Arundale Primary School said "It was amazing! A once in a lifetime opportunity. If you get the chance don't turn it down. Thank you Childnet for organising this life changing event."

Jude from Wren Academy said "There's nothing like seeing your film on a screen. Everyone should get involved it's an amazing experience."

The winning films from the Childnet Film Competition can be viewed here.

Holiday tips to share with parents to help children to avoid online risks

As wonderful as the Internet can be for helping our children to learn new things, and connect with relatives throughout the globe, it also opens up a range of new potential threats that we, as teachers, need to protect them from.

Thanks to the popularity of social media and communication-based websites, cyber bullying has grown increasingly common over the recent years with *thousands of children in the UK affected.

You can’t monitor a child’s behaviour in the online world at all times, particularly so during school holidays, so what can parents do to help protect your pupils against the threats that plague the Internet today? We spoke to Rebekah Carter from Broadband Genie about some of the steps parents can take to keep kids safe online.

Step 1: Speak to Your Child

First and foremost, the fight against cyber bullying requires parents to maintain an open, and honest path of communication with their children. Parents should make sure that their kids know that they can speak to them if they’re feeling threatened by anyone, or anything when they’re browsing the Internet, and ensure that they’re aware that parents aren’t going to blame them for any problems, or overreact to an issue.

The more comfortable their children are with the idea of speaking to them, the more likely it is that they will be able to address an issue of cyber bullying in its earliest stages - before the problem is allowed to progress.

Step 2: Supervise Where You Can

Many parents pay close attention to what their children do throughout the day - including who they play with at school, and what extracurricular activities they are involved in. So why not get involved with their cyber-lives too? They can find out which social networks their children use and friend or follow them so that parents can carefully supervise who they talk to, and what they do.

Parents should make sure however, to not smother their children with constant supervision, otherwise children may start using fake accounts and sites without their knowledge in an attempt to avoid their parent’s constant presence.

Step 3: Work with Schools and Set Limits

Most schools work to teach children about the threat of real-world bullies, and how they should deal with bullies if they are ever approached by one. Parents should tell the administrators and teachers in the school if they’re concerned about the issue of cyber bullying or other online threats, teachers can then ensure that the matter is addressed in assemblies and classes where possible.

What’s more, remember that the more unrestricted, and unsupervised access their kids get to Internet-accessible devices, the more likely they are to fall victim to cyber bullying, as they’re actively increasing their online presence. To reduce the chances that their children will suffer as a result of the behaviour of other children, they can set some limits. For instance, parents might restrict use of a laptop to after-dinner hours, and ensure that social media usage occurs in shared areas of the home, rather than behind closed doors.

Parents might also consider setting up instant-messaging or texting filters so that younger children are only permitted to communicate with close friends and family members, or use a shared account for emails so they can watch what comes in, and what goes out.

Young people spend a considerable amount of time online at home, with the latest Ofcom report stating that in 2015 close to nine in in ten 8-11s (91%) and nearly all 12-15s (96%) have Internet access at home. While the Internet is a fabulous source of entertainment and knowledge, it is essential that parents understand how to harness this resource to protect their children online.

*Figures from the NSPCC claim that there were 7,296 counselling sessions with young people who talked to Childline about online bullying and safety last year.

If you would like further support on engaging parents, E-safety Support members can assess a bank of parental engagement resources including an online parent training course which can be issued via email and allows parents to take the course at a time to suit them.

15 tips to encourage pupils, parents and staff to get involved in e-safety

We heard from Henry Platten of eCadets about empowering children to embrace technology. Michael Brennan from Tootoot discussed his experience of bullying at school and how this lead to the development of their safeguarding reporting tool for schools. Tim Pinto led a discussion on the Ofsted requirements for e-safety and Alicia Coad of ChatFOSS rounded off the formal presentations with information on social media and working with parents.

To complete the day, all the delegates worked together to come up with 15 tips to help engage the whole school community with e-safety. Here are their suggestions:

Pupil Empowerment

Engaging Parents

Curriculum

Digital Literacy

Staff

If you would like to share your tips for engaging the whole school, please email news@e-safetysupport.com

An extra tip received from Mary at a secondary school in London is to include e-safety tips on student planners.