Digital wellbeing

For many, a student loan is the first real experience of having financial responsibility and access to large sums of money. The pressures of managing your finances can sometimes get difficult, and some end up turning to online gambling as a quick way to top-up the bank balance.

Although it’s exciting when you win, the odds are stacked against you. Some get caught up in the cycle of chasing losses – gambling away more money in the hope of winning it all back – something that’s all too easy to do, with just a few clicks of a button. The pressure and stress this can cause is linked to increased problems with mental health and depression that can have a serious impact on all areas of your life.

There is also an increasing number of online gambling scams, including phishing emails, or getting lured into opening an online gambling account with the promise of large bonuses and free bets. Fraudulent and fake gambling websites have also become more prevalent, and it’s often very hard to spot. Keep yourself safe online and get to know the risks associated with online gambling.

Help is available

There is free help available to anyone who is affected by problem gambling – whether that’s you yourself, a friend or a family member. BU is working with Gamcare, the leading national provider of free information, advice and support. If you are unsure about how much of a problem your gambling is, Gamcare has a free online assessment tool. This will produce a report, along with advice on any next steps you can take.

Check out our gambling awareness page for more advice and support.

At BU, we encourage respectful debate, discussion and learning from others as a way of broadening our minds and perspectives. This should however be within the parameters of democracy and the laws of our country. There is no place for extremism at BU.

Although not common, there are people online who use social media and websites, amongst other digital channels, to spread their extreme views and ideas. This could be the promotion of articles, images or videos that promote violence, terrorism, or non-peaceful protests. When others start to support or involve themselves with these extreme views, this is called radicalisation. Those looking to radicalise others could spread their extremist views online in an attempt to draw people into their way of thinking (this could be motivated by religion, politics or animal rights, as a few examples).

If you are approached by someone with extreme views, and you are uncomfortable about what they are saying or asking you to do, consider the consequences of radicalisation to your life, your values and the people around you.

What you can do

It can be hard to know what to do if you’re worried someone close is expressing extreme views or hatred, which could lead to them harming themselves or others. Working with other organisations, the police protect vulnerable people from being exploited by extremists through a Home Office programme called Prevent.

Act early and tell us your concerns in confidence. You won’t be wasting our time and you won’t ruin lives, but you might save them. Visit the ACT Early website to find out more.

You should also take notice of any change in behaviour of a family member, friend or fellow student who you believe may be radicalised. Raise any concerns you have with AskBU by calling 01202 969696 or emailing [email protected]. However, in an emergency, where you believe there is an immediate issue or danger, please call 999 and speak to the police. You should also report any online material that promotes terrorism or extremism on this government website.

Find out more about online radicalisation and how to spot the signs in others who may be susceptible to online grooming and radicalisation.

It’s so easy to accidentally share a lot about yourself on social media that can be used by the wrong people. There are two things you can do to help protect your social media accounts right now:

1. Remove your birthday, middle names and address information from your bio - this will help stop people posing as you and contacting your family and friends..
2. Check your privacy settings – this should be really easy to do in popular social media apps. You won’t be able to stop people seeing your profile and news feed if you join public groups like selling pages though, so decide if you’re comfortable with that.

We'd also suggest you take a minute to use filters to use stickers or blur out personal information in photos… Was your student number on the happy picture you’ve shared of your student ID card? Is your address on that cute letter from your family back home? Could someone work out your address from your photos and screen shots of from your running or exercise app?

Visit the Get Safe Online website to find out more about the risks associated with social media and other online networking and how you can protect yourself.

Phishing is any activity designed to trick you into giving out your personal details. These details can be used to impersonate you, steal further information about you and potentially your money. Fraudsters can target students with bogus emails and text messages posing as security checks from banks and Student Finance England and other student loan companies

Clicking on unknown attachments or links could see you sharing personal information with scammers, and result in slow system performance, viruses and malware that compromise your personal computers and the BU network.   

The best thing to do is contact the organisation directly to check if the email was sent from them. Always take a moment before making a decision to respond, and consider if you feel you’re being made to feel curious, scared or sympathetic. Check for poor spelling and grammar as this is often a sign that fraudsters are at work, and ask friends or family for their thoughts on whether the information is legitimate.

Find out more on our IT Security page about suspicious emails and check out the Get Safe Online website.

If you do receive an email to your BU account you believe to be a scam, you can attach the email (don’t forward it!) to ‘Unwanted Mail’ in Outlook, or call IT Service Desk on 01202 965515, option 1.

Online shopping brings more risks, and more opportunity for cyber criminals to scam you out of your money or steal your personal information so it's important to make sure you’re shopping safely on the web. Here are a few top tips to help you have safe and secure online shopping experience:

Do your homework – If you’re using a website you’ve not used before, research them online first to make sure they’re legitimate. See if you can find customer reviews and for independent sellers on a website, check out their online reviews on a site like TrustPilot. Avoid clicking through to websites from pop-up ads – instead go directly to the company’s website via a search engine.

Check the website security – Look for the following signs to know whether the website is secure

• There should be an icon of a locked padlock in the address bar next to the website address.
• The website URL should start with https:// and not just http:// - the S stands for secure.
• On some browsers and websites, the address bar will turn green to show you it is secure.
• Pay attention to any warnings about site certificates – these sites should be avoided.

Before you go to pay – Consider the security of your payment options. Using a credit card offer more financial protection than a debit card as there are more consumer protections and it doesn’t give direct access to your credit. Third-party payment services such as PayPal and Google Pay are another option as you’re not giving the seller your card information directly.  Some banks are now also adding extra security when you’re shopping online, including multi-factor authentication where you will have to pass an extra level of security to prove it’s you, e.g. a one-off time-limited code sent by text.

Use your personal email - Please do not use your BU email address when registering for or accessing online accounts on retail internet sites where the use is for personal reasons. Using your BU email address for this purpose could expose BU to a cyber-attack if your email address becomes compromised.

Looking for more information?

For more guidance and top tips on staying safe when shopping online, take a look at the National Cyber Security Centre’s security advice.