PUPILS at a Greenock school are on the front foot in the battle to keep people safe online.

Youngsters at St Andrew’s Primary have launched a new campaign to encourage fellow students and the wider public to be aware of their digital footprint.

They designed colourful foot imprints, which are dotted around the school, to grab people’s attention and convey their internet safety message.

Summer McEwan, who is in P6, said: “We call them our digital footprints.

“We’re trying to represent that when you put something online it won’t just disappear, even if you delete it.”

Classmate Nieve Houten, also in P6, added: “They show that there is a good and bad side to the internet.”

The girls are some of the school’s ‘digital leaders’, made up of pupils from P1-7, who are on a mission to make people aware of the pitfalls of the world wide web.

Sharon Lightfoot, who teaches digital literacy as well as science, technology, engineering and maths at St Andrew’s, said: “The children have been learning for a number of weeks now about internet safety – the whole school has.

“The recently-established ‘digital leaders’ filled in application forms and had an interview for their roles. It’s a big project.

“This brings everything together and helps them learn in this manner because we want people to walk over the footprints and understand the message that you have to be very careful what you post online.”

Sarah Flynn, who is in P6, says she has learned a great deal.

She said: “You have to be careful because if you put something on the internet that you really don’t want someone to see, it will be there forever.”

Fellow ‘digital leader’, Patrick Smith, a P4 pupil, added: “You can put good things like your hobbies on the internet but don’t put bad things like phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses and other personal information.”