7th February 2022Leanne Tonks

Tuesday 8th February is Safer Internet Day – an annual campaign to help make the internet a safer, more secure place for people of all ages to enjoy.

Ahead of the celebrations, the Peer Mentors group at Bishop’s Primary School have been working hard to create a range of resources to support their fellow pupils to recognise potential scams or threats online and how to keep their devices and data safe (but we thought it might be beneficial to share these with you too!)

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Top 10 tips for staying safe online:

    1. Make sure your antivirus software is up to date – this can help to filter out harmful viruses.

    2. Be careful what you download – not everything is always as it seems!

    3. Never publicly share personal details like your home address, email address or telephone number online.

    4. Be careful what you post – will you live to regret a comment you made on a friend’s photo? Or will a status you post potentially be misread and end up hurting somebody? The internet has a long memory, so be careful what you share.

    5. Use strong passwords – try to avoid using things that are “easy to remember” like ‘password123’ as hackers can guess these within minutes! Instead, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols to keep your accounts secure.

    6. Be careful to only shop online from reputable companies, not everything you may see advertised on Google or social media is genuine. If you’re ever in doubt, search for the company or website on Trust Pilot or Feefo to see what fellow online shoppers’ experiences have been like.

    7. You would always be wary about talking to a stranger who approached you in the street – apply the same principle when communicating with people online – are they who they say they are?

    8. Think about the networks you connect to when you’re out and about – your devices may be more vulnerable when connected to a public WiFi network in a coffee shop or shopping centre.

    9. Cover your webcam – some viruses will let hackers access your webcam without you even knowing so make sure to cover your camera whenever you’re not using it.

    10. Watch out for phishing scams – these can take multiple different forms but are most commonly emails which may look genuine at first, but are really designed to trick you into sharing personal details like your bank accounts. We’ve shared some further tips about how to spot email scams below.

 
Some further tips for recognising email scams:

  • The “sent by” address will either be a jumble of random letters and numbers or have an unusual domain (not .com or .co.uk)
  • The email will contain links to click to ‘confirm your details’ or ‘make a payment’
  • The email may have an attachment which looks strange or unsafe to open
  • The email may give you a limited time to reply
  • There might be spelling mistakes, bad grammar and sentences which don’t quite make sense
  • If the email contains any logos or images, these may appear ‘pixelated’ or blurry
  • If requesting money, the amount will usually be quite specific, not rounded up to the nearest pound/pence to try and make it seem legitimate, eg ÂŁ692.88 instead of ÂŁ700,00.

 
For more information about Safer Internet Day, visit https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022.

A range of useful resources to help you and your family stay safe online can also be found at: