Early Years – Digital Media Use
At the end of May Ofcom released their new Children’s Media Use and Attitudes report which showed:
- 84% of parents report children are online by age 5, and 65% of 0.5 to 2 years are using online devices (tablets being the most popular).
- A staggering 24% of 5 years olds ‘own’ their own mobile phone and 68% have access to a mobile phone.
- Content viewed is mainly TV (82%), music and photos.
- BUT – 37% of 3-5’s are using social media.
LGfL have put together a Powerpoint for Early Years practitioners which would be useful for a staff briefing or wider staff training.
Link: Ofcom Children’s Media Use and Attitudes report.
Link: LGfL Online Safety in the Early Years.
AI Tools for Education
Quite often I’m asked if I know of an AI tool for a particular purpose. It isn’t my area, my focus is online child protection. However I do know of a very popular site which lists and reviews AI tools that are specific for educators, reviewed by educators. The site is called AI Tools for Education and is essentially a directory of AI tools that have been reviewed by educators for specific purposes. So if you are looking for a tool for assessment, lesson planning, presentations, student gaming etc. you’re sure to find it here.
Link: AI Tools for Educators.
Infinite Scroll – Growing Up on TikTok
Revealing Reality have released their newest report, Growing Up on TikTok, and as with every RR report it is fascinating. The report is all on one web page and towards the top you can view a 60 second video which shows the ‘For You’ feed of a 14 year old as he scrolls for a single minute. Very useful if you have never seen/used TikTok.
The report asks an important question, whilst the value to the company is enormous, if an average child is scrolling through more than 700 short videos pers day and spending less than 5 seconds on each, what is the value to the child? As the report states, TikTok comes under the banner of ‘social’ media, but it isn’t social, it’s scrolling, often doomscrolling during the night for hours on end.
There’s a lot of detail in the report as well as case studies which would be very useful for classroom discussions, such as Tom who is 15 years old. Tom spends 6 hours and 39 minutes online per day on average. Just over 4 hours of that is on TikTok, he sees around 945 videos and most of these are watched for less than 5 seconds. Unsurprisingly, 20% of these videos are ads.
Link: Revealing Reality – Infinite Scroll – Growing Up on TikTok report.
Announcement – Online Safety Pro – SEND Version
This has been on my to-do list for some time. Online Safety Pro gives schools access to annually updated and refreshed online safety training to staff and parents plus half-termly updates for staff and parents.
One of the most challenging areas is for children with SEND, including the staff that work with the children and their parents/carers.
I am now pleased to announce that Traci Gregory, an SEND specialist, and myself have put our heads together and a specific SEND version of Online Safety Pro will be available from this coming September. All resources will be ready at the end of August ready for the new school year.
Current schools who have subscribed to Online Safety Pro, whether they are an SEND school or not, will also have access to these new resources.
For further details about Online Safety Pro including costs see here:
Link: Online Safety Pro
For Parents – New Videos from Internet matters
Over the last few days Internet Matters have released two new videos onto their YouTube channel which I’m sure will be useful to a lot of parents. They are both very short, the first is ‘what to do if a stranger contacts your child online’, and the second is what to do if your child is bullied online.
Link: Video – what to do if a stranger contacts your child online.
Link: Video – what to do if your child is bullied online.
