As our topic in PSHE at the moment is staying safe (including both in real life and on the internet), we already know lots about how to stay safe on the Internet.

We starter our Safer Internet Day by recapping all that we know about the risks of using the Internet and also our Golden Rules for how to stay safe if we come across one of these risks.

Once Miss Cammiss was satisfied that we knew of all the risks and how to keep ourselves safe, it was time for a debate!

"The age restrictions for social media should be lowered from 13 years old to 10 years old."

We played 'vote with your feet' and debated as a whole class. Here are the arguments we came up with:

For

• Children are taught how to stay safe on the internet, what's the point if they're not even allowed to use it?
• The age of criminality in the UK is 10. If a child can be responsible enough for their actions to be prosecuted, they can be responsible enough to use the Internet.
• Some 10 year olds are more mature than some 13 year olds.
• Children will use it whether the restrictions are 13 or 10 so we might as well change it anyway.

Against

• Not all children know of the risks and rules about using the Internet safely, we are lucky to be taught about it by our parents and teachers.
• Most 10 year olds are not mature enough. 10 year olds are not old enough to take responsibility for these risks.
• The restrictions are in place for a reason and we shouldn't question that.
• There is inappropriate material not suitable for 10 year olds on the Internet.

The children were all brave enough to have their say and they had some very interesting points to argue about. Interestingly, the class were split 50/50 so it worked perfectly for our debate with an equal amount of children arguing for both for and against!

Category: Class of 2014

Tags: Class 5

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