STUDENTS from The Petersfield School, Churcher’s College and Eggar’s School in Alton met police, social workers and youth workers to learn more about internet safety.
Hosted by the King’s Arms Youth Centre in the Festival Hall car park, the all-day event on Thursday, March 15, was run by Hampshire County Council Childrens Services, helped by the police.
During the course of it they looked at the dangers of ‘sexting’ – the sending of sexually offensive text messages, and the inappropriate use of the internet, mainly via their mobile phones.
King’s Arms operations manager Caroline Aeschliman said: “They know all about how to use the technology and the internet, but they seemed quite shocked about how things can develop and how dangerous it can get, if they aren’t aware of what they are doing and don’t use it sensibly.”
After being talked through personal safety when using the internet, and how the law affects those under 18 years old using the internet, they were introduced to the Safe, Meet, Accept, Reliable, Tell (SMART) pledges.
Caroline said: “These are guidelines to help keep them safe.”
The pledges offered advice such as not giving out personal details, keep them ‘Safe,’ and not to ‘Meet’ anyone they have only been in contact with online.
The teenagers were also advised not to ‘Accept’ e-mails, texts, pictures files, or messages from people they don’t know.
And they learned information they find on the internet may not be ‘Reliable,’ and that they should ‘Tell’ a trusted adult if something they had received made them feel uncomfortable or worried them, or made them feel they were being bullied.
One of the students said: “We enjoyed the freedom of using our phones in a positive way, it felt like we were respected and therefore wanted to use them appropriately.
“It was great to be encouraged to talk about things rather than avoid the subject, and we would like to run similar sessions for other students in our school.”
Caroline added that the King’s Arms would be looking at running more of the East Hampshire District Council backed internet safety days for schools throughout the district.