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Online Safety Advice

Online Safeguarding Advice for Parents

During the current Coronavirus (Covid-19) situation many parents are working from home including supporting remote learning with their children. Many children will increase their online activity time during this period due to being at home more, so it is important that families incorporate time to learn about how to keep safe when going online.

It is highly likely that online offending will increase during this time, so it is important that young people know how to learn, socialise and play online in a safe way.

Below are some top tips on how to help keep your child safe when going online.

• Use parental controls - Adding parental controls will allow you to monitor and limit what your child sees and does online. Visit www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/ to access step by step guides on how to set up parental controls.

• Start a conversation about online safety - Show interest and understand what your child likes to do online and who they like to speak too. To learn more about the most popular apps and games that kids are using visit www.net-aware.org.uk

• Set time limits - During this period it is important that your child isn’t spending too much time in front of a screen, plan activities that don’t include using an electronic device.

• Report - Make you and your child aware of where to go to report online crime.


Information Posters

There are a selection of posters which you can download at the end of this webpage with specific advice for parents/carers.


You can find out more about how children use social media, the apps they use, the risks they face, how to use privacy settings, and advice and tips about how to talk to your children, at:


Where can I go to get support to help keep my child safe online?

There is a lot of support available to keep your child safe online.

Be Internet Legends - Google have launched a resource containing online safety activities for the whole family. The programme is designed to teach children the skills they need to stay safe and have a positive time online. The programme is split in to 4 categories: Think Before You Share, Check it’s For Real, Protect your stuff and Respect Each Other. Click here  Be Internet Legends

Below are some useful links to help parents and carers:

  • Thinkuknow (advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online)
  • Internet matters (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
  • Parent info (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
  • LGfL (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
  • Net-aware (support for parents and carers from the NSPCC)
  • Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support
  • Let’s Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation
  • UK Safer Internet Centre has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services
  • SafetyDetectives – Parents’ Guide for Safe YouTube and Internet Streaming for Kids.

Checklists

Take a look at the checklists using the links below to help you keep your child safe online.

Snapchat Checklist

Facebook Checklist

Twitter Checklist

Instagram Checklist