I am the Education Safeguarding Adviser (Online Protection) at Kent County Council and have been working in the field of online safety since 2008.
Along with my colleague, the e-Safety Development Officer, my role is to provide online safety support, guidance and training for Kent’s Educational settings, including schools, colleges and early years settings. I am responsible for developing a suite of online safety policy and guidance documents to help education settings implement positive online safety practice.
A key area of work that I am passionate about is the importance of educational settings working in partnership with children, as well as their parents and carers, to shape their approach to online safety. I believe that parents and teachers have a crucial role to play in helping children keep safe online by role modelling responsible online behaviour, and having an ongoing dialogue with children about the benefits, as well as risks, of the online world.
I believe that empowering children and young people to use the internet safely and responsibly needs a practical and pragmatic approach, which is why I am delighted to have been asked to sit on the Internet Matters panel. By being engaged with our child’s online lives, we will all be better equipped to help them develop the skills they need to use technology safely and, to most importantly, have fun online!
