Children and young people are generally smart when it comes to being online. It’s embedded into their education from an early age as a functional skill and schools are good at providing advice and support about staying safe online.
Since the school closures work may have been sent home for children and young people via an online learning platform and, or lots of the activities provided may be based online or accessed through applications downloaded onto a phone or tablet.
You don’t need to be an expert on the internet to help keep your child safe online. There are some general principles to follow to support children and young people in having a positive online experience:
Children and young people must be made aware of the impact of their behaviour online. It’s important to keep personal information safe and not share it with strangers. Discuss with your child the importance of reporting inappropriate conversations, messages, images and behaviours and how this can be done.
Some content is not suitable for children and may be harmful to them. Children may need your help in understanding this. It is important that young people understand that they should get any information from reputable sources and avoid fake news!
Most online services offer some safety features that can help you manage access to age-inappropriate content, report concerns or protect privacy.
It is a good idea to think about the sites and services your family uses, and check out which features these sites have that might be helpful for you. Talk to your children and make sure they know how to use the tools on the sites and services they use.
The 4 big internet providers in the UK – BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media – provide their customers with free parental controls which can be activated at any time. You can set up filters on your home internet to help prevent age inappropriate content being accessed.
It is important for young people to know that new friends they make online are strangers if they don’t know them in real life. Regularly reviewing friends lists and removing unwanted contacts is a useful step. Privacy settings online may also allow you to customise the information that each friend is able to access.
Talk to your children about the implications of copyright when downloading and using images and the hidden costs and advertising in downloading apps, games and on websites.
Video
There are lots of resources online that help explain online safety to children and young people in creative ways.
Listen to this funny One Direction parody song! CBBC Newsround supergroup ‘News Kids on the Block’ have some helpful tips on using the internet safely.
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