One of the highlights for me of the 2013 Safer Internet Forum was Professor Sonya Livingston’s session on Internet Safety and Responsible Use in the Early Years.
As part of this panel discussion Nadège Bastiaenen for the Safer Internet Centre in Belgium showcased a resource that they have been working on for the Early Years.
It is the best Early Years Internet Safety and Responsible Use Resource that I have seen for a number of reasons including:
- It looks great – and is in a child friendly format.
- It reminds us that many young children use Internet enabled devices to play games (and game can be social).
- The key message of ‘if you see something that you don’t like on the Internet – ask for help’ is very clear.
- It shows clearly that giving (even very young) children the tools to tackle the problem and then working with them on the problem, before they can continue independently is a way to develop resilience in young people.
- There are no spoken words in the film but the visual message is clear – making it a transferable and very easy to translate resource.
You can see the video below:
Getting resources right for the early years is a tricky thing to do. I’ve thought for a long time it would be great if the BBC could take on board the need for this type of resource and perhaps produce a Talky Time version for Internet Safety and Responsible Use.
The great thing about Talky Time is that includes the instructions (training for teachers) in the sub-titles. It uniquely combines engaging content for children and training for teachers in a unique television package.
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