Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Ford.

Welcome to Lesson five in our unit, Online in the media, harmful contact.

In today's lesson, we will learn about the risks of unknown people online.

This will include the risks of sharing personal information, and anything compromising.

We will also learn about the risks involved with joining groups, promoting extreme views, or spreading misinformation.

Finally, we will examine the risks associated with meeting people known only in the online world.

For today's lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper, and a pen.

You may choose to have an alternative coloured pen to improve your work following feedback given in this video.

One of the key words for today is strangers.

Strangers are people that we do not know.

We should always remain aware online or offline, younger or older, of stranger danger.

The term risk is another thing that we're going to be exploring.

Risks are the possibilities of something bad happening.

A reminder here for you is that every day you navigate risks.

We spoke about in our previous lesson that nearly 12,000 people a day go to hospital, just because they've been putting the socks on and they've had an accident.

You will probably navigate the risk of putting your socks on by sitting down or not putting them on when you're near the stairs.

Risks can be managed, if you are aware in the first place of the risk, and also if you have the understanding and the information about how to reduce your risks.

We're also going to look at this term radicalization.

And this is when a person comes to support extremist ideologies, and terrorism.

So let's think about that term stranger danger.

What do you think the term stranger danger means? Why do we advise that you don't talk to strangers? And why do you think this rule is still important online? Pause the video and have a think about those three questions, please.

Stranger danger is a phrase that is used to remind people that there is an increased risk around people that they don't know.

There are risks involved when communicating with somebody that you don't know.

And it's difficult to assess your risks around somebody that you don't know, are they going to be safe? Do they mean what they are saying? Can you trust this person? Online strangers are even more difficult to assess these risks around because they can present some worrying risks.

How do you know you can trust this person if you've never even met them in real life? You're not using that intuition that is built into our bodies.

Do you really know who this person is that you are talking to online? Do they look the way that they are presenting themselves? The risk to stranger danger is even higher if somebody chooses to meet somebody that they have never met before in real life when they are alone.

It is also riskier if somebody meets someone in a place that is quiet and it's not out in public.

The risk is even higher if somebody chooses to meet someone without telling somebody else preferably a trusted adult, where they are going, who they are meeting and how they can be contacted.

What are the risk of sharing personal information online? Let's have a look at Chelsea.

So Chelsea has set up a new profile on a social media platform, and we're going to give her some advice to help her to keep safe online.

Chelsea wants to know should she include her name for social media? A first name or a first and last name, or a different name? Should she include her birthday? Should she include her phone number? Pause the video and have a think about those three things please.

The next question she's asking is that the site asks Chelsea if she wants to share her email address on her page.

What do you think she should do? Chelsea is selecting a profile picture.

What advice would you give her for sharing this profile picture.

There is also the option to add the town that Chelsea lives in.

should she? Pause the video and have a think about that now, please.

Chelsea wants to direct her friends and followers to her other social media accounts.

Should she include usernames for the other social media accounts in this account? Chelsea has found a group for her school or a page.

Should she join that? And Chelsea's favourite pictures of her and her friends at school in a school uniform.

Should she share that? Pause the video and have a thing, please.

Well, if Chelsea did all these things, she has shared her first and last name, where she goes to school, her phone number and email address, how people can access her other social media accounts, her date of birth, which is usually used for a lot of security questions, and who she spends time with.

What information can be passed on to people through your social media platforms? Could somebody come and pretend that they know you? Somebody could come to Chelsea's school with a birthday card and birthday present, And say, "I know your mom and dad they have asked me to bring this card." They know our school, they know our date of birth, they know our first and last name.

They might say, oh, hey Zoey.

Somebody that she spends time with and they look like they know this person.

Is that keeping you safe if you share all this information? Can people use this, strangers use this to gain access to your life? So why is it an issue? Well, Chelsea may feel that she is safe to do this, because she set her security on a profile to high and she only allows people into her profile who she knows in real life and spends time with.

However, remember that this information can be shared outside of your trusted circle.

Somebody can screenshot something and send it, or somebody could just tell somebody.

This information can then be shared with strangers, increasing your risks online.

Chelsea has been messing around at a sleepover that she had with her friends.

And she took pictures of herself in her pyjamas and sent them to a boy that she fancies in her year group.

The boy receives them and then tells Chelsea, that he will share the pictures with everyone in their year group chat if she doesn't send him some more explicit photos of herself.

What do you think Chelsea should do? Pause the video and have a think please.

Well, Chelsea needs to report this.

This is a really serious case of blackmail.

She needs to talk to a trusted adult immediately.

She should also block and report the boy.

Blackmail is illegal and it should be dealt with in a serious manner.

Schools will always support their pupils in times like this, and with incidents like this.

The problem is Chelsea might feel like she should be sending more images to stop him.

However, she could end up being in an even more difficult situation than she already is, if he receives explicit pictures of Chelsea, because he might take the blackmail up to the next level and ask for even further explicit images.

Now, what are the risks of joining groups promoting extreme views or misinformation? Here's john.

Now john has been arguing with his dad a lot.

So he's been online more often.

His friends have recommended a group page to him.

And it's a group who say they are standing up for the rights of the British person.

John has been reading the posts being shared in the group.

And he's surprised at some of the information being shared and the comments of the post.

He hasn't heard this bit of information, he hasn't heard these opinions, he hasn't read these articles or seen these memes before.

And so he's surprised by this information and wants to find out more.

John continues to find out more in this group.

He starts commenting and asking questions underneath these posts.

And more and more people start to reply to him.

They're befriending him making friends that he thinks they're friends of his.

And they're sharing more links to him to read to different articles.

John feels like he's making friends in this group and he spends more time interacting with the members reading the comments, reading the posts, posted his own comments, and also pictures online.

John has become more isolated, and he doesn't want to spend as much time with his family because it feels like he has a really good group of friends in this group post in this page, but he hasn't met any of them.

And he's spending less time with his friends, in order to spend more time with these people in the online group.

What john isn't aware of is that the websites and the people on this site are sharing misinformation.

The articles that have been shared, are not supported by any evidence at all.

And because john has been looking solely on this page and hasn't been doing his extra research elsewhere, he's not aware of this.

These people and these articles in these posts are altering John's opinions on life.

And he's been slowly radicalised by this group.

He's begun developing some extreme views based on this false information being shared, and the false relationships that he has found on this website of unknown people, strangers.

What do you think John's friends can do to help? Pause the video and have a think please.

John's friends need again to speak to a trusted adult.

This can be somebody at home, this can be somebody in school, it might be somebody in the community groups about their concerns.

John has been radicalised online.

The adult may choose then to look further into the group.

The adult may take screenshots and report this group to the police or to the platform that these people are spreading the information on.

There are laws protecting people from extremist groups.

I would like to make it really clear here that this isn't your job to do.

The job of John's friends is to pass this on to a trusted adult who can take this roll on.

Please don't try to do this yourself.

The trusted adult if they are in a place where they may be in social care sector, school sector, police workers and other authority groups may then choose to refer John to the Prevent team.

And the prevent team will help him direct him to the help that he can receive to understand what has been happening, how he is being radicalised online, and how he can move forward from this.

The Prevent team are there to support people who are at risk of radicalization.

They are well trained professionals in doing this.

Final reflection for today's lesson.

I would like you to think back through this lesson, or if you've completed all of the lessons in this unit, then you can think back through those.

And I would like you to create a KWL grid to recap the learning that you have about online risks.

kWL stands for know, want and learnt.

What did you already know? And in your know column, you write down anything that you came to this lesson or units with and you pop that information in? What do you want to know more about this information in the future? What hasn't yet been covered in this unit that you would like to know more about? If you share this information with your teachers, they will be able to tailor their lessons to support you with this.

And finally, what have you learned? The example I put in there from today's lesson is that there are people who want to radicalise your views through misinformation.

I'd like you to complete your own kWL grid please.

What you already know, what you want to know, and what have you learnt.

Thank you for joining me for lesson five of this unit.

If you would like to, you can ask a parent or carer to share the work that you have completed on Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.