Internet safety is a growing concern for teachers and adults alike, with the increased access children have to the service. As a result, my school traditionally has an assembly regarding this concern every year, addressed to the Year 12 students, and often presented by a hired company. This year, I was one of those students.

            I had been interested to see what the assembly would actually consist of- it seemed urgent, seeing as it took up an hour-long period in the school day. The school shows these types of assemblies throughout school, and are usually appropriate for certain age groups. In the case of an assembly for much older, and likely more experienced students, the content focussed more on the adult side of the Internet, like abuse, grooming and ‘sexting’, while previous years had featured more information on cyber-bullying.

            A man called Luke, who worked for the company, presented the assembly via a PowerPoint. The slides started in talking about different types of social media as well as the most popular apps. In turn, Luke went on to talk about how Privacy settings on something like Facebook, which affect who views your profile, could lead to the approximately 2 billion users of the app being able to view whatever you post- quite a shocking fact when hearing it said aloud. Despite the weight of these facts, the presenter was fair, saying that he wasn’t telling anyone that they had do to anything- just giving recommendation for staying safe.

            The presenter then talked about grooming on the Internet- where strangers lure young people to them via flattery and threats through instant messaging, which often leads to sexual abuse and even death. In turn, Luke described the ways in which these problems could be avoided, such as reporting them via organisations like Childline and CEOP. Also featured were videos in-between these slides, such as shocking recreations of real-life grooming, and an informative video regarding Childline.

            These presentations are becoming increasingly useful in a world where Internet connectivity is becoming more common by the day, and as a result the government and schools are finding it more necessary to protect children from potential dangers that can occur.

Written by Louis McGowan

Hayes School