National Deaf Children’s Society helps deaf young people stay safe online

The National Deaf Children’s Society have joined forces with Childnet International, part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, to create a raft of e-safety resources that aim at encouraging deaf children and young people aged 11–16 to stay safe online.

For the first time NDCS have created lesson plans for secondary school teachers on subjects of safe social networking, cyberbullying and sexting, as well as a helpful webpage for parents and an information flyer for young people.

Deaf children can miss out on informal learning, such as playground talk about internet and social media use, and often have lower literacy levels than other children their age. This means that they might need extra help to use the internet safely, especially as information on privacy and safety features can be difficult to understand.

Susan Daniels, Chief Executive from the National Deaf Children’s Society said: 

“Deaf children and young people are particularly vulnerable to bullying both on and offline. It is really important to the National Deaf Children’s Society that they receive the right information at school, so we have created lesson plans for secondary school teachers on issues such as sexting, social networking sites and cyberbullying as well as information for parents and a downloadable tips flyer for deaf young people. We hope these tools will help deaf children and young people to stay safe and be smart online.”

Safer Internet Day 2016 will take place on 9th February with the theme ‘Play your part for a better internet!’  Hundreds of organisations get involved and use the day to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

The Be Safe and Smart online resources can be found on the Childnet website here: http://www.childnet.com/resources/be-safe-and-smart-online