UK Government publishes response to Internet Safety Strategy Greenpaper consultation

Yesterday (Sunday 20th May) the UK Government published its response to the results of the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper which looks at how we can ensure Britain is the safest place in the world to be online.

The Strategy considers the responsibilities of companies to their users, the use of technical solutions to prevent online harms and government’s role in supporting users.

The consultation covers various aspects of online safety including:

• the introduction of a social media code of practice, transparency reporting and a social media levy,
• technological solutions to online harms,
• developing children’s digital literacy,
• support for parents and carers,
• adults’ experience of online abuse, and
• young people’s use of online dating websites/ applications.

Statement from the UK Safer Internet Centre

“As the National Centre, UK Safer Internet Centre is committed to help make the UK the safest the place to be online and proud to support and contribute to the Government’s Internet Safety Strategy. 

“As a partnership of three charities: Childnet, Internet Watch Foundation and SWGfL, we collectively work to promote the safe and responsible use of technology and the Internet, whilst also recognising the opportunities and potential it represents for our united benefit.  

“Through our work, we resolve harmful online incidents, work that drives our commitment to continue our work that supports the Government in the continued development of the Internet Safety Strategy to make the UK the safest place to be online.”

Further detail

Specific aspects of our activities that support the Government’s Internet Safety Strategy include innovative reporting methods, world class education resources and curriculum reform, improvements to policy and safeguards, improved  management of inappropriate and illegal online content and safety built in ‘by design’.

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2018 Appropriate Filtering and Monitoring definitions published for consultation

The UK Safer Internet Centre has reviewed its 'appropriate’ filtering and monitoring definitions and is publishing these as draft for consultation until June 15th 2018. The definitions aim to help both schools and providers understand what is considered ‘appropriate’.

Following the introduction of statutory guidance, UK Safer Internet Centre first published its filtering and monitoring definitions in 2016 to help both schools and providers understand what should be considered as ‘appropriate’. 

The UK Safer Internet Centre has undertaken a review of the definitions of appropriate filtering and appropriate monitoring for schools. These have been published as draft for consultation until June 15th 2018.

The changes being proposed in 2018 include:

• The inclusion of a new recommendation that Schools and Colleges undertake (and document) an annual online safety risk assessment, further assessing their broader online safety provision. 
• Introduction to System Features of:
  • Circumvention – the extent and ability to identify and manage technologies and techniques used to circumvent the system, for example VPN, proxy services
  • Group / Multi-site Management – the ability for deployment of central policy and central oversight or dashboard
• References to:
  • the capability and capacity of staff to manage the filtering and monitoring systems
  • assistance of ‘Education in a Connected World’ in assisting schools and colleges in shaping an effective curriculum.

A further proposed change relates to new provider response forms separating ‘providers’ from ‘integrators’ (ie those companies who develop their own system compared to those who use/recommend systems from other companies).

There has been much interest in the definitions of appropriate filtering and monitoring and the publication of the 2018 draft changes follows the release by Department for Education of the 2018 updated statutory guidance (Keeping Children Safe in Education) on 17th May 2018. 

The UK Safer Internet Centre welcomes the advice for schools and colleges on how to prevent and respond to reports of sexual violence and harassment between children. In response the UK Safer Internet Centre will also recommend that governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that an annual online safety risk assessment is completed. It will also highlight the safeguarding support offered by its Helpline in supporting the childrens workforce with online safety issues.

The revised definitions can be found and downloaded at the foot of the following pages here:

• Appropriate Filtering
• Appropriate Monitoring

The consultation period will close on June 15th.

Please send any response to enquiries@saferinternet.org.uk

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Staying safe online whilst livestreaming - advice for parents and carers

UK Safer Intenret Centre Director Will Gardner looks at the IWF’s latest livestreaming research and gives advice to parents and carers. 

The release of the Internet Watch Foundation’s new online live-streaming research, titled Trends in Online Child Sexual Exploitation: Examining the Distribution of Captures of Live-streamed Child Sexual Abuse may have concerned some parents. 

In this research the author worked with over 2000 cases where (she believed) children had been either groomed or coerced into live-streaming videos of themselves, via their webcam, mobile or tablet. Most of the illegal videos she saw had been recorded by offenders, who viewed the live-streamed abuse and then redistributed it. In many cases, the children appeared to be completely unaware a recording was being made. 

This research highlights the need for us all to be aware that although the internet can be a great place for young people, there are some potential dangers posed by technology. This blog includes some advice and top tips to help children to be safe online whilst live-streaming. 

1. Talk regularly with your children.
   Talk regularly with your children about how they use technology and find out what their digital life is like, including what services they are using. If in doubt, talking PANTS from NSPCC is a good way to teach children how to stay safe from abuse – offline and online. Our suggested conversation starters for parents and carers, are also a useful resource.
2. Before you stream, protect your personal information.
   Live-streaming is becoming a very popular way for young people to broadcast themselves on many different apps, to communicate with their friends or wider community, just as their favourite celebrities and Vloggers do. Make sure your children understand the risks of live-streaming. Live broadcasts can’t be edited, and you can’t erase what people have already seen. Remind them that personal information might be given away by things said during the stream, things shown on camera or even in the background. Importantly, live-streams can be recorded by others, who can then keep a copy even after the stream has ended or expired. 
   The Net Aware guide from the NSPCC includes the most popular social networks young people use, and tells you which services include live-streaming, or allow young people to connect with people they only know online.  
3. Make an agreement about device usage.
   Livestreaming can both allow your child to watch live broadcast and also broadcast themselves, and there are risks to be aware of in both activities. Live video can be faked, so encourage your child to think carefully why an unknown person might want to video chat with them. If a site has privacy settings, always make sure your children use them to control who can contact them.  
   Parents can make a family agreement, where the whole family can be involved in making promises about whether to use streaming services at all, who to use them with, or where in the house it is OK to use them. Parents may decide that devices that can be used for live-streaming and video chatting (such as tablets, phones, webcams connected to computers and laptops) should not be located in bedrooms or more private areas of a house. For further advice, check our video chat and webcams guide. 
4. Teach your child when to say no.
   Children may be groomed or coerced into appearing naked on camera or performing suggestive acts over webcams, as the IWF revealed on their latest research. This content can be also recorded and used to threaten or blackmail young people. It’s therefore crucial for parents and carers to be aware of children’s use of technology and to educate them on the dangers posed to them by offenders. 
   Tell your child that if he or she is ever asked to say or do something online they don’t feel comfortable with, they can always say no, end the chat or broadcast, and talk in confidence with you or another trusted adult. Remind them that it is never too late to tell you about something which has happened online. These SMART Rules will help your children keep themselves safer online.
5. Report abusive content.
   Show your children how they can report offensive or abusive material on the service they use to watch live-streams. You can find more information about how you can help your child stay safe online by using features such as privacy settings on social media and understanding how to make a report on a range of apps, games and services. 
   If you, or your children, ever stumble across child sexual abuse material online, you can also report it to the Internet Watch Foundation. Reporting takes less than 2 minutes and can be done completely anonymously. 
6. Use the tools available to help you.
   There are lots of tools to help you manage the devices used by your family. For example, knowing how to activate and use parental controls can help protect your child from seeing inappropriate content online. For advice and guidance on how to make use of parental controls and other safety features on devices, check out the UKSIC’s free Parents’ Guide to Technology.

Read the full report from the IWF

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A parent’s guide to YouTube Restricted Mode

In this blog Childnet, a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, explore the safety feature ‘Restricted Mode’ on YouTube; looking at how it works and some things to be aware of when using it.

At Childnet our Education Team go into schools each day to deliver online safety sessions to pupils, parents and teachers. In these sessions we are often asked about filtering content on the online video-sharing service, YouTube.

What is YouTube?

YouTube is the largest and most popular video sharing service in the world with over 1 billion users, and is owned by Google. It hosts both user generated and commercial content via its website and mobile apps.

YouTube is hugely popular with people of all ages – one reason for this is the incredible variety of content which can be found there. 

With over 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, inevitably some of this content will be inappropriate for younger viewers. Because of the amount of content being uploaded to the site, other filters (including filters through your internet provider) may not function effectively enough for YouTube. In this blog we look at the things you can do to help your child stay safe when they’re watching YouTube.

YouTube Community Guidelines

YouTube uses a set of ‘common-sense rules’ – their Community Guidelines – to help content creators determine what is and isn’t appropriate to post. The Community Guidelines include guides on nudity or sexual content, hateful content, harmful or dangerous content and violent or graphic content.

Whilst YouTube works hard to ensure all videos meet their Community Guidelines, due to the high volume of content uploaded to the site each day, there is a risk that some videos will break these guidelines and still be available to view. Additionally, just because something is acceptable under the guidelines, doesn’t mean it’s automatically appropriate for users of all ages.

What is Restricted Mode?

Restricted Mode is an additional setting which can be enabled on the YouTube website and app. If enabled it restricts the availability of potentially mature or objectionable content.

How does Restricted Mode work?

The primary method for filtering content in Restricted Mode is an automatic system using algorithms. These algorithms, or rules, determine what content might be considered inappropriate by checking different elements such as the title, language and metadata used in each video. Metadata refers to information about the video such as the upload date, creator, video description, and tagged keywords.

YouTube acknowledges that automated systems are never perfect and that their algorithms “sometimes make mistakes when assessing which videos to make available in Restricted Mode.”

YouTube also employs a team of reviewers to manually check some content which may need to be filtered out. In particular, they manually check videos which are ‘flagged’ as inappropriate by YouTube users and all videos which are submitted under the ‘Restricted Mode feedback’ form.

How do I use Restricted Mode?

Restricted Mode can be turned on by:

1. Going to the account icon in the top right corner on the YouTube site or app.
2. Toggling Restricted Mode to the ‘on’ option.

Restricted Mode works at a browser level, so if you choose to use it you will need to turn it on in each browser installed on your device (Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc.)

The YouTube Privacy and Safety Centre provides more detailed advice about using Restricted Mode on different devices.

Our Advice

It’s important to remember that no filter is ever 100% effective on its own and any controls should only be used if they work for you and your family.

Here are our top tips for supporting your children on YouTube:

• Filtering systems can be helpful, but they are not a replacement for discussion and involvement with your child’s online life. Watch videos together, talk about their favourite channels and make sure you’re always close by when your child is accessing YouTube. We have some conversation starters to help you to start this discussion with your child.
• Know how to use the reporting tools on YouTube – you’ll need to have a YouTube account or Gmail email address to do this. Read up on how to report inappropriate content and share this knowledge with your family.  Engaging with the YouTube community by reporting videos that break the Community Guidelines will make the site a better place for everyone.
• Explore further settings – have a look around the YouTube Help Centre to see what else you can do to minimise risks on YouTube. For example, you can turn off the ‘Autoplay’ feature so that once a video had finished, no other videos will be played automatically after it.
• Give children strategies to deal with unwanted content – let them know they can speak to you if they see something they don’t want to or show them how to turn off the screen if something is upsetting and they want it to stop.
• Consider making a Family Agreement. This is a great way to start a conversation with your whole family about how you all use the internet and to discuss how to behave online in a positive way. If YouTube is popular in your family, you could include a specific section in your agreement to talk about it.

This information about YouTube Restricted Mode was correct at the time of publishing.

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GDPR is coming, but what does it mean to my school?

You may have heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR); if you haven’t, it is a change in the legislation regarding how personal data can be stored and used and it comes into effect on the 25th May 2018. But what does it actually mean? What do we need to change in order to be compliant with this new law?

Why GDPR?

Global communications has changed significantly in the last 50 years, and with the growth of internet technologies and computing, it was inevitable that data privacy laws would need redoing - especially considering the legislation it replaces in the UK is now 20 years old (Data Protection Act 1998).

Apart from legislative reasons, there are real problems that GDPR aims to solve. It has become clear over the past 10 years that personal data is a valuable commodity (just look at Google and Facebook among other companies), where products and services are free at the point of use, supported by advertising and other processes that use the data collected.

Over the past few years there have also been a string of huge data breaches that have shown companies are hoovering up massive amounts of personal data, which has led to questions such as:

What processes do they have in place to keep the data secure?
Are they handling the data correctly?
Do they have permission to use the data in the ways they are using it?
Do they even need to hold the data in order to perform the function we asked them to perform?

GDPR will strengthen and unify data protection for individuals within the EU, and will force all organisations processing personal data about EU citizens to abide by the new regulation.

What is personal data?

Personal data is defined as any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from it. This is basic information such as name and email address, photos, and IDs.

This includes any electronically gathered and/or stored information, as well as paper-based storage.

There are also ‘special categories’ of personal data that schools are likely to handle, such as ethnicity and health information, which have additional rules around how the data should be stored and handled.

Controllers and Processors

GDPR applies to both controllers and processors, so all parties involved can be liable.

As a controller you are required to determine the purposes and means of processing personal data, and you have legal obligations to ensure your contracts with data processors are GDPR compliant.

As a processor you are responsible for processing personal data on behalf of a controller, you are required to maintain records of personal data and processing activities.

Collecting Data

You must have a good reason to collect and hold personal data, which needs to fall into one of the six lawful bases:

• The Data Subject has given explicit consent for the data to be collected and used for a particular purpose
• It is necessary to process the to fulfil a contract you have with the Data Subject
• It is necessary to process the data to comply with a legal obligation you have
• It is necessary to process the data to protect the vital interests of someone
• It is necessary to process the data to perform a task  in  the  public interest
• It is necessary to process the data for the purposes of your legitimate interests

Each piece of personal data processed by the school must be attributed to one of these bases otherwise the processing is not lawful. Much of the personal data processed by a school (or other state funded educational establishment) will fall under the public task base. But you should always ensure that this is the case. For example, it’s lawful to collect student address and telephone number under public task but it is not lawful to then share that with other third parties for a ‘non-core’ task without gaining appropriate consent.

Reasons for processing data

The new regulations are designed to prevent organisations from collecting massive amounts of personal data, when they don’t necessarily need it for the purpose it was collected for, or that purpose has been served and there is no longer a need to keep it.

Part of preparing for the new regulations is going to be about auditing all the personal data you hold, and determining whether you actually need it. This process should also be documented, because we will all have personal data that we no longer need. Documenting what data there is, why you need it or how it has been discarded, is evidence that you have proper processes in place should a data breach occur.

This alone is not going to be a simple task, when you get down to stores of unstructured data, such as Word documents, spreadsheets, and email archives; determining whether they contain personal data, why it was created, and who’s data it contains, then deciding what to do with that data is not going to be an easy task.

What is a data breach?

The definition of a personal data breach is now more robust and clear than previous legislation; a personal data breach means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data.

Whether accidental or deliberate, anything that causes personal data to be lost, destroyed, corrupted,disclosed or unavailable, for whatever reason (for example, if it becomes encrypted by malware), can be considered a breach, and the ICO must be notified within 72 hours of the breach being discovered.

If the breach is significant enough to adversely affect the rights or freedoms of data subject(s), they must also be notified.

All this adds up to mean that you must have a plan in place for how data is to be protected,, how your systems should be monitored for data breaches, and for what happens if a breach occurs. Staff will need training on how to handle data and record how it is used.

Rights of the Individual

GDPR is designed to give control over personal data back to the data subject, as and such it defines a number of individual rights over that data that organisations must adhere to, they are:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Individuals whose data you will be processing now have the right to be informed about the collection of any of their personal data, the reason you are collecting it, how it will be processed, who it will be shared with, and how long it will be held for.

They also have the right to request to see that data, for that data to be available for use by other services that the individual requires, for any incorrect information to be corrected, or for data be deleted (depending on the basis for the data being processed). They can also restrict usage of the data, and for personal data processed on the basis of their consent, the individual has the right to withdraw consent at any time.

The basis for processing the personal data of a child is also more complex, as parental consent may also be required.

Conclusion

The current data protection act places a statutory requirement upon schools to comply and GDPR is an evolution of these requirements, with transparency and accountability on both the controller and processors’ part, and on control over that data for the data subject.

It is not going to be an easy task for any organisation to evaluate and consolidate the data they have, and put in place the training and processes needed to remain compliant in the future. But GDPR is not something that will ever be completed; it is an ethos and a set of processes that need weaving into every area of your organisation where personal data is handled, and as its implementation matures we will no doubt see organisations struggle with certain aspects.

The 25 May 2018, when the legislation comes into force, should not be viewed as a finishing line, but by developing a plan to get to a place of compliance, and getting the people in your organisation to start thinking about how data is handled and processed, you will be well on the road.

For more help with knowing your obligations and developing your plan, you can access our GDPR Guidance for Schools and Colleges:

GDPR Guidance for Schools and Colleges

This article was originally published by SWGfL

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Having an open and honest conversation about online safety – 5 questions for parents

In this blog from Childnet, a Partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, Education Officer Phoebe looks at the ways you can start a conversation about online safety with your family.

Through my role as an Education Officer, I spend most of my week in schools across the country talking to children, young people, staff and parents about online safety. At Childnet our main message for parents is to take the time and speak with your child about the games and services they like online. By engaging with your child and having an open dialogue about online safety, even if they are still young, we hope that your child will be more likely to come to you if they have a problem with something online in the future.

With that in mind I’ve put together five questions for you to think about as a parent, and five questions for you to ask your child. Having an open and honest conversation is key and I hope that the following questions might help you to begin that conversation around online safety as a family.

5 questions for Parents

1. When was the last time you had a conversation with your child about going online?
   Talking regularly with your child about how they use technology can help you to find out what their digital life is like, including what their favourite sites and services are and also how being online makes them feel. It’s always helpful to have these chats when new devices are introduced, e.g. a tablet for Christmas or a new phone for their birthday.
   Not sure where to begin? Along with the questions for you children in this blog have a look at our suggested conversation starters for parents and carers.
2. Are you aware of the available safety tools?
   There are lots of tools available to help you manage the devices used by your family. For example, knowing how to activate and use parental controls can help protect your child from seeing inappropriate content online. Setting your Wi-Fi to only be available between certain hours of the day can limit your child’s usage, and disabling features such as geo-location or in-app purchases on your child’s phone can prevent them sharing their exact location or stop an unexpected bill.
   For advice and guidance on how to make use of parental controls and other safety features on devices, check out our free Parents’ Guide to Technology.
3. Does your child know more about the internet than you do?
   If the answer is yes then don’t panic! We often hear from parents that they feel overwhelmed with the amount of games and apps available. Try not to focus too much on the mechanics of a game or app, instead focus on the behaviour of your child or the risks involved as these will run across different platforms and devices. Your child can always talk you through and be the expert in the specific services they use, but you are the expert in keeping them safe.
   We have a series of hot topics which can help you understand the key online risks or you can visit NetAware to learn more about risks on specific platforms.
4. Have you set clear expectations or boundaries?
   The online world is an increasingly large part of modern family life, so it makes sense to approach it as a family too. Why not make a pledge together on how as a family you’re going to use the internet safely and positively? This will ensure children are aware of the boundaries set in place and also means they know what to do if something goes wrong. If you need help with this, have a look at our family agreement for a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
5. Do you know how to access support if you’re worried about your child’s online usage?
   Try not to overreact to potentially risky online situations, instead be curious not furious. If you become aware of something your child is accessing online then try to establish the reason they have found themselves looking at that content. Was it that they accidentally clicked on an advertisement on the screen, was it that they misspelt a web address which then took them to another website or did they hear a word in the playground and purposely typed it into a search engine?
   If you want further help around the content your child is accessing you can get support from your child’s school or contact a parent’s support helpline;
   NSPCC and O2 - for help and support with parental controls or social media concerns – 0808 800 5002
   Family Lives - for help and support with all aspects of family life – 0808 800 2222
   YoungMinds  - for help and support with mental health and wellbeing – 0808 802 5544

5 questions to ask your child

1. What is your favourite thing to do online? Can you show me how your favourite game works?
   The internet is an amazing place and provides endless opportunities to communicate with others, be creative, find new things out and have fun through games and apps. Children use the internet in different ways so start a conversation with your child around their online usage, remember often many of the problems we experience online are down to human behaviour and not the service itself.  
2. What does your digital footprint say about you?
   Your digital footprint is anything that you publically post online about yourself, any anything that somebody else publically posts about you. The easiest way to find out your digital footprint is to search for yourself online. Children are forming their digital footprints younger and younger as it’s almost impossible not to have one and the content which they are posting could potentially stay online forever. Encourage your child to think about what their images and videos say about them; are they happy with the story they are telling? How would someone perceive them now and in the future based on their posts and comments? Ensure your child knows how important it is to post positively and respectfully about themselves and others whilst online and encourage them to create and manage a positive digital footprint.
3. Can you trust everything and everyone on the internet?
   Don’t be fooled… not everything or everyone online can be trusted.
   We tell children information isn’t put up online by computers, or by robots, but by people, and people can make mistakes. Things go out of date and people can put information online to deliberately mislead. In the current climate, the issue of fake news is a big area to contend with so critical learning is key for us all, especially children who need to be armed with the skills to find reliable and trustworthy information. Before believing everything they read online prompt them to think carefully about where it comes from, who’s written it and whether you can find a similar message on 2 other trusted websites.
   It is important to remember that not everyone is who they say they are online so remind you child never to agree to meet up with someone they only know online. No matter how friendly they might seem or how well they think they know them, they are still a stranger. Remind them to always tell you or a trusted adult if someone asks to meet up.
4. What would you do if you saw or heard something upsetting or worrying online?
   Remind you child that the most important thing is to tell an adult. Taking a screen shot is also helpful as it means you can clearly see first-hand the problem.  Explore the report and block buttons together on varying apps and games and reinforce the importance of not retaliating.  If you want to know more about the safety tools on social media then take a look at the social media guides.
5. How do you know when you’ve had enough?
   Being online can be great – there are so many fun and exciting things to do! But being connected all the time isn’t always a good thing.  Tell your child to look out for the signs their body and device might be giving them. This could be having sore eyes or neck or feeling hungry and thirsty. Your battery might even run out or over-heat. Our advice would be to have a healthy balance between online and offline activity, take plenty of breaks, talk to someone if you need help managing your online usage and use the device settings available to you, e.g. the ‘do not disturb’ or ‘night time’ settings. 

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