As a childminder registered by Ofsted I must follow the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage
Part of that framework involves children finding out about everyday technology and giving them the opportunity to use programmable toys, and ICT equipment to support his/her learning. In my setting, children will have supervised access to a laptop and an ipad.
Recent years has seen the transformation of learning in childcare settings with the development and expansion of the use of ICT, and particularly of the internet. The internet is a fantastic resource for supporting children with their homework and social networking sites are becoming ever more popular, allowing them to chat with their friends. The internet can however also be a very dangerous place for children. Some of these dangers include:
· Gaining access to illegal, harmful or inappropriate images or other content.
· Being exposed to harassment and bullying
· Accidently sharing personal / financial information
· Being vulnerable to online grooming by paedophiles.
I have an obligation to my minded children to ensure that they are safe and are protected from potential harm. I do this by:
· Ensuring children have safe access to the internet by maintaining security system/s and filters.
· Talking to the children about what websites they are using and not allowing children access to chat rooms whilst in my care.
· Discussing the importance of keeping safe on line with the children for example, not talking to people they don’t know or not giving out personal information that could enable people to identify them and never to arrange to meet anyone they have spoken to online.
· Always staying nearby when the children are using the laptop or ipad so as I can supervise what they are doing.
· Regularly checking my search history.
· Limiting the time children spend on computers and ensure that they spend a balance of time engaged in ICT and other activities.
If you would rather your child was not allowed access to the internet then please let me know.