On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we hosted a series of student consultations and 1:1 interviews with Praesidio Safeguarding on behalf of Internet Matters and Apple.  50 students from Years 9, 10, 12 and 13 participated, either in group workshops or individual consultations.  Praesidio Safeguarding have been asked by Internet Matters to consult with young people about the potential for a communication safety feature on iPhones. This feature aims to detect and blur nude images that might be sent or received, to help people stay safe online.  Our students were asked what they thought about this feature – how it works, whether it’s helpful, and how it could be improved.  The students were also consulted about their wider views and experiences of online harms, like bullying, grooming, or other risks that people your age might come across.
As always, the team from Praesidio were incredibly impressed with the maturity, interest and knowledge of all the students were involved across the two days in all the forums.

We have now worked on a number of projects with Praesidio Safeguarding in the past few years.  On each occasion all the participating students had a very interesting, informative and fun experience, as well as gaining valuable experience of working with other professionals and self-confidence for future work experience and work shadowing opportunities.  In addition to this, participation in such online safeguarding projects is really valuable to Balcarras as it consolidates our own Personal Development and safeguarding provision for all students.

We are really grateful to all our students who participated in this valuable project, and look forward to working with the Praesidio team on many more occasions in the future.