E-safety

There’s a new app that loads of your friends are using. To create an account you need to set your age as older than you actually are. Your friends keep asking you when you’re joining - what do you do?

• Go ahead and create the account. You don’t plan on talking to anyone that you don’t know, so what’s the big deal?

• Let your friends know that you’re waiting until you’re old enough. They should understand.

• Create the account but make sure your details are private. That way you’ll feel safe.

You are playing an online game and receive a friend request from a username you recognise.

You think it’s someone you know from outside school. What do you do?

• Ask them the next time you see them if they sent the request.

• Accept the request – you’re pretty sure you know who it is, and can always delete them if you need to.

• Ask them a few questions to double check who it is before accepting.

Your parents have posted your latest school photo, to a site that you use too, but you think it’s embarrassing! What do you do?

• Explain to your parents in person why you don’t want the picture online, and ask them to take it down.

• Report the photo to the site to try and get it taken down.

• Get really mad - comment on the photo to let everyone know exactly how you feel!

A friend of yours posts a lot in support of a charity that they’re passionate about, but they’re getting some unkind comments on their posts. You want to support them online but the charity is really not something that you’re in to either. What do you do?

• Do nothing, you don’t want to get involved.

• Send a rude message to those who are leaving negative comments.

• Support them either online or offline when you can, because you know it’s important to them, and report the unkind comments.

You use a wide range of apps and games, and want to change your profile pictures from photos of yourself to cartoon characters. Your friend says this means that you’re being fake online. What do you do?

• Change the photos to cartoons, but include more info in your usernames to help your friends to identify you.

• Don’t change them. Your friend’s opinion really matters to you.

• Change the photos to cartoons as planned. It’s ok to use images that you are not in.

You share a link for an animal rights charity with your friends in a group chat. Some of your friends are upset by what they see. What do you do?

• Stand by your decision. Explain that it’s your right to share the things that you care about.

• Continue to share things that you think your friends might be interested in, but let them know in advance what the content is about.

• Apologise for the upset caused and keep your opinions to yourself in future.

Your friend posts a photo taken straight after a sports match. They look amazing but you know it’s been heavily edited. What do you do?

• Comment on the photo saying that they look awesome but that they really don’t need to edit their pictures!

• Like the photo. It’s up to them how they present themselves online.

• Leave a positive comment on the photo and talk to your friend privately about why they wanted to edit it.

You’ve been writing an anonymous profile about funny things that happen locally and it’s starting to get quite popular. You’d love for people to know that it’s your work, but you also like the fact that you can really be yourself this way. What do you do?

• Keep on as you are. It’s up to you whether or not you reveal your identity, and can do this whenever you feel comfortable to do so.

• Let your readers know your name. You’re not writing anything that will upset people so you should be fine.

• Tell your closest friends, to test their reactions first.

You start following a new account online but the content they share is very different to your life. They’ve always got new, exciting things to show everyone and it’s starting to make you feel like your life isn’t good enough. What do you do?

• Unfollow the account. It’s not worth seeing their posts if it’s making you feel bad about yourself.

• Keep following the account and try to make small changes in your own life to be more like them.

• Push the feelings aside – you know the things you see online are often the highlights of somebody else’s life, so it’s time to stop comparing yourself to them.

You have a hobby that you love, and do well at, but only a few of your best friends know about it. You want to share a video from a recent competition, but you’re worried about what others might think. What do you do?

• Decide not to share the video with anyone at all. You’d rather not risk any negative comments.

• Share the video publicly. If other people make mean comments then you know they’re just jealous.

• Share the video on a site/app that you feel comfortable with, and use your privacy settings to control who can see it.