Our busy Education Team typically visit up to eight schools a week, delivering sessions for children and young people aged 3 – 18 years old, as well as information sessions for parents and carers, and staff training.
They also play an instrumental role in creating resources for Safer Internet Day, as well as our projects and resources such as Thrive Online, Moving On Up, and our STAR SEND toolkit.
We sat down with our new Education Officers to find out more about why they joined Childnet and what drew them to the online safety space.
How did you find out about Childnet?
Naoimh: I found out about Childnet when I was working as a secondary school teacher. I was looking for resources on how to inform my year group about keeping themselves safe on social media.
Alison: During my time as a secondary school teacher, I also took on the role of PSHE lead in my school. In this role, online safety and digital wellbeing came up frequently, especially after lockdown and online learning. Through research, I found Childnet, and I used many of Childnet’s wonderful resources to guide and inform the lessons I was making for my own school.
Why did you want to join the Childnet Education Team?
Naoimh: When working in a school setting, I saw that there were so many young people who did not know how to protect themselves in their online lives. I grew more and more passionate about this issue as I struggled to firefight the issues which were cropping up, and felt I needed to be in a preventative role helping them to safeguard themselves.
Alison: I knew that when I decided to leave teaching, I wanted to move into the charity sector and continue working with children and young people, but that I also wanted to develop my skills in resource creation and planning that had been so important during teaching. The role of Education Officer for the Childnet Education Team fit this plan perfectly, as I get to meet lots of wonderful young people, and help contribute to the important resources that we make as a team.
What is the most important issue in online safety at the moment?
Naoimh: In my opinion, the biggest online safety issue at the moment is livestreaming. Not the livestreaming itself, but ensuring that young people are not giving away too much information about themselves in their streams. It’s the small details which they let people know about their offline lives which can build a larger picture and put them in positions which they did not intend to be in.
Alison: In my opinion, the spread of fake news and unreliable information online is one of the biggest issues facing young people online at the moment. It can be difficult for anyone to know if what they are reading or watching is reliable, and without knowing what signs to look out for and how to research trustworthy sources, the online world can be overwhelming!
