Internet Matters Ltd

As we head towards May half term, the move to secondary school gets ever close for Year 6 pupils. It can be an exciting though daunting experience, with a lot to think about and prepare for. Secondary school opens up a world of opportunities - from new friends to new-found independence and, most likely, a new smartphone. Our Big School, Small Screen campaign includes a new online safety hub for parents, carers and teachers, packed with useful information, advice and resources to use with Year 6 children both at home and in the classroom, to help keep them safe from online harms. Find out more: https://bit.ly/3QQo3T3

Teachers, order these free 11-13 year old digital safety leaflets to send home to Year 6 parents. Help parents increase their knowledge of their child's online world as they transition to secondary school. Order batches here: https://bit.ly/3WYYcLJ #teachers #resources #OnlineSafety #digital #schools

Teachers, order these free Moving to Secondary School digital safety leaflets to send home to Year 6 parents. Help parents navigate the online challenges Year 6 pupils may face during their transition to secondary school. Order batches here: https://bit.ly/4budlJv #teachers #resources #schools

The scale of self-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material is a core concern for online safety, with the IWF reporting an exponential increase in the volume of self-generated CSAM in recent years. Our in-depth research with children and young people in England and Wales looks at how to educate and prevent sharing among 11–13-year-olds. The research, funded by Nominet was carried out in collaboration with Internet Matters Ltd and explores the messaging and interventions that are likely to be most effective. In case you missed the webinar and presentation at #pier2024 –you can catch up on our website and see the presentation by Praesidio’s Dr Zoe Hilton https://lnkd.in/eGtzNppJ

#Teachers, the time of year has come to prepare year 6 pupils for their move to secondary school. We've created the Big School, Small Screen online hub to assist you with that. The hub contains useful resources that can be used in the classroom, including lesson plans, interactive quizzes and activities to help you keep them safe from online harms during this key transition period. Find out more and share with other teachers: https://bit.ly/3QQo3T3

This week, we joined colleagues for an inspiring two days at the #PIER24 conference. Simone Vibert and Lizzie Reeves from our team enjoyed thought-provoking discussions about global efforts to prevent and combat online child sexual abuse.   We had the opportunity to present our work on preventing self-generated child sexual abuse. You can read the full research from our partnership with Nominet and Praesidio Safeguarding on our website. We are so proud of this project which developed practical interventions to prevent abuse through consultation with children, parents and professionals.    It was a privilege to present alongside the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region research team Dr. Sarah Colley and Emma Hardy Chart.PR from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) demonstrating the importance of collective efforts to protect children from harm.   Thank you PIER for organising such a meaningful event which brought together many experts and fellow advocates working towards a shared mission. Together we can make a safer digital world for children.

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Looking forward to a productive session at #PIER24 - and excited to be speaking alongside such expert co-presenters

Our latest research calls for earlier interventions to prevent children sharing sexual images of themselves. The report “Shifting the dial: methods to prevent self-generated child sexual abuse among 11–13-year-olds”, puts forward new proposals to stem the surge in children and young people sharing self-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Most efforts to tackle the issue of CSAM have focused on removing this content once it is already in circulation, which is necessary and vital work. This research focused on preventing sexual content from being shared in the first place. Key findings include the need to tailor prevention messages by gender and to ensure that there are a variety of interventions, delivered in school, at home and online. We developed three prototype models – a discussion-based lesson, an interactive game and a behavioural ‘nudge’ technique, each of which showed potential to protect 11-13-year-olds from sexual abuse. Thank you to our partners Nominet and Praesidio Safeguarding for their support with this important work. Click on the link to read the report https://bit.ly/3UL4htY

Good to see another key step made in the road to regulation of online services. The detail matters and we look forward to sharing our views in due course.