3. A Balanced View
3. A Balanced View
I am Rachel Williams and I am a PC with the Hampshire Constabulary. I have been a Police Officer for 17 years and I have a 25year old son. What I would like to talk about is having a bit more of a balanced view. I know it can be very overwhelming sometimes with technology and protecting your children. Some of the concerns that people have; parents in particular is the time that their children spend online and who their children are talking too.
Parents worry that maybe they might get bullied online or that they will not learn in the same way from when they were children ie: from books. With the Internet there is a vast amount of information available that they can learn from. However, not all is factually correct and doesn't come from the books that may be used in education.
Inappropriate images, parents worry about their children seeing things that they shouldn't see. We can look at this later and what we need to do to balance it out. We need to think about the positives that we can get from technology and from being online. Obviously, the most recent event was the COVID Pandemic. As you know a great deal of the workforce had to work from home, we also had our children study from home and to be in touch with the schools and the teachers in some circumstances via the laptops or computers online.
This use of the Internet was a massive positive and enabled everyone to stay in touch with their family and friends, to socialise, complete homework, research and learn new skills. My son, when he was a young teenager, learnt how to play a guitar via YouTube and the lessons that are available online. There is a lot of skills that you can obtain by just researching.
Socialising, playing games, entertainment, films and music is all available at the touch of our fingertips, we just have to remember to balance out our fears and remember the positives that it can bring. If you have any questions at the end of all of all our presentations, please let your school know and we will endeavour to answer them.
