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Tips, advice, guides and resources to help keep your child safe online
As a parent or carer you play a key role in helping your child to stay safe online. The internet and online technologies are an important part of children’s lives at home and school, providing great opportunities for learning, communicating, playing and creating. As we know, these technologies create huge opportunities for us all, however, they can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, and present challenges to keeping your family safe online.
Negotiate General Online Safety Rules - examples might include:
How much time per night they are allowed on technology/the internet.
The age rating of websites they are allowed to visit.
Sharing and/or distributing personal details, images and videos.
How to treat people online and not post anything they wouldn’t say face-to-face.
Check the age rating of games – if the age rating is an 18 these games can include bad language, sexual content etc.
Set online gaming settings so your child can only talk to their friends – private chat not game chat.
Set the amount of time your child spends playing online games.
Help your child to use privacy settings and how to report issues
Check the privacy settings on any online accounts your child has.
Remind them to keep their personal information private.
Talk to your child about what to do if they see content or are contacted by someone that worries or upsets them. Make sure they know how to use tools to report abuse.
Make sure your child knows they can come to you if they’re upset by something they’ve seen online and make sure that you listen and don’t overreact - the important thing is that they have come to you for help and support.
If your child comes to you with an issue, stay calm and listen without judging them and don’t threaten to take away their devices.
Use parental controls
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as Sky, Virgin or BT, provide controls to help you filter or restrict content. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and other devices that connect to the internet, have settings to activate parental controls.
Below are some useful resources to help ensure your child is safe on the internet.
Additional information about online safety can be found on the following websites:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/parents-and-carers - Resources on using technology such as laptops, phones smart speakers and games consoles
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/#advice - This has advice on how to stay safe online as a family
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides - This contains guides and tips an a number of online safety issues
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
https://www.internetmatters.