The SMART rules have been developed with the aim of keeping young people safe online.
- S encourages young people to be safe by not giving out their personal details online
- M draws attention to the risks associated with meeting someone you only know online
- A highlights the risks of accepting emails, pictures and text messages from unknown sources
- R is a reminder that not all information found online is necessarily reliable
- T encourages children to tell someone if something happens or they meet someone online that makes them feel uncomfortable
Resources
Case studies
Michael Keenan, Advanced Schools Teacher, St Austin’s Primary School
The SMART rules are at the core of everything we’ve done in terms of e-safety this year. The Children got a lot out of the Kidsmart DVDs that we let them see. We’re going to let the children take these DVDs home and work through them with parents as well.
We’ve developed workshops with the children based around the SMART rules and they’ve made little booklets and their own characters and they’ve written about them. We let the children evaluate how well this is going by letting them get into little groups – we give them the headings and they work through what their perceptions are. From that, we get lots of feedback.
Stephen Tallent, ICT Technician, St Austin’s Primary School
To keep this fresh in the school, we say to the kids every time you see me you have to come up to me and say “I’m SMART” and give me a high five. The kids are still doing that to this day so it’s obvious the message has sunk in with them and that they remember.
Year 9 pupil, Gateacre Comprehensive School
The SMART rules are good because they tell you what to do and what not to do, such as don’t give out your information and don’t meet up with people.
Year 9 pupil, Gateacre Comprehensive School
I think they’re important because without them we wouldn’t know what to do on the internet and it keeps the students more safe.
