Laura, a Cyber Prefect

by Laura (Aged 11), Cyber Prefect

I thought that the cyber champions presentation was brilliant.

There were four main things I took from the presentation that were well explained and detailed.

The first was about cyber footprints. Now I didn't actually know what one of these was until the presentation so it was very good to be able to learn that a cyber footprint is the trail left behind when you access a website. They are always there and cannot be easily removed. Therefore, you need to be very careful about the information that you put onto the internet about yourself.

The second was about people are usually not the same online as they are in real life. People might say something online and then not actually mean it, for example, I might have a really bad fall out with my friend and I might just want to scream and shout at them but not have the courage to do it at school, so I might do it online. But this might mean that I end up not just saying what I wanted to at school. I might cross the line of what is acceptable, it might get out of hand and I might really hurt my friend's feelings. Once I've sent it, it's not just for my friend to see, it's potentially for the whole world to see.

The third was that at the end of the presentation, Cyber Champions had come up with a checklist, for the pupils in year seven to do at home which included typing your name into a google search and google images to see if any personal images or information came up. I went home and tried this and fortunately for me I don't have Facebook or any other social network like that so no images or information came up, but I know a lot of people and have a lot of friends who would have typed their name in and find something come up.

The last thing is that internet isn't a horrible thing and you shouldn't be scared of it, you can do some wonderful things on it, for example, my sister is on Twitter and she has a lot of really nice friends who both me and her have met but she is older so knows how to use the internet safely, and I think that The Cyber Champions have done a really good job of explaining how to use the internet safely, Thank you!