Wallington High School for Girls

e-Safety

Gaming

Social Networking

Mobile World

Instant Messaging and Chatrooms

Emerging Technologies

Eating Disorders

Reporting Problems

Where to go for help

e-Safety Information for Parents and Students

Everyone has a mobile phone. The new generation of mobile phones now offer much more functionality that just telephone calls and text messaging. This opens up a whole world of possibilities, not only for keeping in touch with your friends, but also to keep track of your social network and to send and receive data via WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS.

Some Social Network sites allow the user to tie their GPS enabled phone to a service they provide to let other people know where they are. Some phones, such as iPhones, have Apps (applications) that allow this service to run direct from your phone so you can see where people have 'checked into' while on the move. Other Apps allow you to discover local GPS devices and then they are updated on a map with any information from social networking sites that both the user and the other person are signed up to. This allows you to see who you know that is near you.

GPS is also used to embed location data into digital pictures taken on modern camera phones, smartphones and digital cameras. This is called Geotagging. This geographical information embedded in your picutres can be used to plot the location of the picture on a map. This geotagging can be disabled on your mobile devices and the manual for your device should be consulted.

List of Text and IM acronyms - Click here to view.

Here are some links to Mobile Provider advice and documents, and some general safety advice about Mobile use.

CSEF Mobile Phone Safety Tips - Leaflet produced by the Child Safety Education Foundation to give tips to help protect your child and their mobile phone.
Orange Mobile Phone Parental Advice - Document produced by Orange to provide guidance on configuring your Orange Phone service for your child.
Orange eSafety Education Site - Link to the Orange eSafety Education Site
Orange Mobile and Online Safety Site - Link to the Orange Mobile and Online Safety Section of their website.
O2 Mobile Phone Parental Advice - Document provided by O2 to give advice for parents about O2 services and controls.
O2 Who Wants 2 Know Book Flyer - This book is available in our library
Tesco Mobile e-Safety Advice - Link to the Tesco Mobile site esafety section
T-Mobile Advice for Parents - Link to the Advice for Parents section of the T-Mobile site
Vodafone Parental Advice - Link to the Vodafone Parents Guide
Safety Advice about Geotagging on Smart Phones - Produced by the US Military for its service personel, but the advice in it is still valid for our Mobile Generation
Premium Rate Mobile Service Bongo 66668 - A summary of this premium rate text service.

Bluetooth.

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless communication protocol that allows discovery of enabled devices and exchange of data with those devices. Also, Bluetooth can be used to remotely connect to another device and use services that it has available, such as internet or phone line.

A couple of things to think about:

Is your bluetooth on?
Is your phone visible?
What is your devices' name?

Best practice is to at least have your phone 'hidden' if you have your bluetooth on, though recommended settings would be to turn bluetooth off if you don't need it for a headset for example. If you have got your bluetooth on and your phone visible, what name have you given it? Does the name of your device reflect the image you want to be giving of yourself to the world at large?

Sexting

The act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones.

Consider this, a girl has been with her boyfriend for a couple of months (an eternity!) and she wants to send him a special message as he is away . She uses her mobile phone camera to take a picture of her reflection in her mirror in her underwear. She is smiling for him and posing so she looks her best. She sends this picture with a sweet message saying how much she is missing him.

He gets the pic and his mate sees him looking at it, he asks for a copy, her boyfriend sends him one, making him promise to keep it secret. The mate agrees but sends it to his other mate, who sends it to everyone on his contacts list. etc etc. the girl goes back to school on the monday and everyone is looking at her and laughing. A group of boys shout obscenities at her, she doesn't know they have all got a copy of that picture through the friends network. She soon figures it out though. She is devastated. She dumps her boyfriend. She eventually has to leave her school and start fresh somewhere else.

The girl pays a high price for pleasing her boyfriend, and the picture is still out there.

What would you do?

N.B. The possession or sending of indecent pictures is a crime and if the subject is classed as a child it falls into the category covered by Section 1(1) of the Protection of Children Act 1978. It is a criminal offence to possess, take, make or distribute an indecent image of a child (under 18). This is also covered under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.