Online Safety Tips

Jack: Hello. I’m Jack and I manage the Premier Skills English website which is a website for people who are learning English and love football.

Jo: And I’m Jo and I manage the LearnEnglish Teens website which is a site for teenagers who are learning English.

Jack: So, why are we here? Well, we’re here to give you some advice about how you can stay safe online.

Jo: That’s right. Online safety is really important and we want to make sure that all of our users are safe whether you're on our websites ...

Jack: … or playing games or on Facebook or Twitter or whenever you’re online ... we want you to stay as safe as you can ...

Jo: So, we’re going to share eight tips with you.

Jack: OK, so our first tip is very simple. It’s: be nice to people online. You should treat people online in the same way as you treat people offline. Remember, online comments can often be misunderstood so be careful what you say to people and how you say it. Respect the people you interact with and they should respect you too.

Jo: OK, tip number two is: take care with what you share. Don’t post anything online that you wouldn’t want your mum, your dad or your grandma to see! The moment you upload a video or a photo it can be shared again and again and again and it could finally appear anywhere and be seen by anyone.

Jack: Tip number three is: keep personal information private. Never post personal information online. This includes the name of your school, your home address, your phone number, your messenger or Skype ID...

Jo: It sounds really obvious but lots of the users on our websites try to do this. On LearnEnglish Teens and on Premier Skills English, all of the comments are pre-moderated. That means they are checked by our team of teachers before they go live on the site.

Jack: We make sure nobody posts personal information, but most sites don’t, so take care.

Jo: Now, let’s go to tip number four, which is: check your privacy settings. Do this on all the sites you use and make sure that only your friends can see your posts. Do you really want the whole world to see what you post online? Some things are best shared with just your friends so keep your online profiles as private as you can and choose your online friends carefully.    

Jack: OK, on to tip number five: know how to report posts. You need to know how to report posts and how to block people on ALL of the sites you use. If you don’t know how to do this, find out. Remember that there are real people behind every website whose job it is to make sure you are kept safe and happy. They want you to keep coming back to their site, so they need to know about any problems you have.

Jo: Ok, now, we’ve had five really important tips already and we’ve still got three more to go. So, number six is: keep your passwords safe. Don’t share your passwords with your friends and make sure you choose passwords that are easy for YOU to remember but difficult for others to guess. Always include a number and some punctuation too. A question mark or a full stop makes your password much harder for someone else to guess.

Jack: OK, tip number seven. This is really important: never meet anyone in person that you met on the internet. Most people you meet online will be normal, but sadly, there are people online who are not who they seem. People sometimes pretend to be different; much older or younger than their real age and it’s very easy to use a photo on a profile picture that isn’t really you - so a girl could in fact be a boy or a boy could in fact be a girl …. Don’t take the risk and don’t meet anyone in real life that you’ve only ever met online.

Jo: Yep, that’s a really important one. Right, now we hope you’re remembering all of this! If you can only remember one of our tips - make it this one! Number eight is: if you see anything online that you don’t like, tell someone you trust. Nothing should make you feel uncomfortable or unhappy. Choose a friend, a parent or a teacher and tell them what’s happening. If they can’t help you, tell someone else. Don’t keep it to yourself. OK - I think we’ve made it, Jack! But that’s a lot of information. Shall we revise what we’ve said?

Jack: Good idea. Let’s go for it.

Jo: Tip number 1: Be nice to people online.

Jack: Tip number 2: Take care with what you share.

Jo: Tip number 3: Keep personal information private.

Jack: Tip number 4: Check your privacy settings.

Jo: Tip number 5: Know how to report posts.

Jack: Tip number 6: Keep your passwords safe.

Jo: Tip number 7: Never meet anyone in person you’ve only met online.

Jack: Tip number 8: If you see anything online that you don’t like or you find upsetting tell someone you trust.

Jo: So, there we are! We hope you found this information useful and we look forward to seeing you on Learn English Teens …

Jack: ... and on Premier Skills English soon.