Tips to help keep children safe on the internet and social networks

Safeguarding in schools is nothing new, but the risks are frequently changing. Young people are rarely seen without a smartphone or tablet in their hand – preventing your children from using the internet or mobile phones won't keep them safe in the long run, so it's important to have conversations that help your child understand how to stay safe and what to do if they ever feel scared or uncomfortable. Talking to your child is one of the best ways to keep them safe. You can also use parental controls on social networks, online games and browsers and on both hardware and software that can filter or monitor what your child can see.

As young people spend more time online and become more confident online users, the potential threats, from grooming and sexting to online bullying and radicalisation, inevitability increase. To help you as families we have collated various information and resources that we feel are of great value.

There are many websites available which offer advice to families which will aid them to keep their children safe online, some useful links are listed below:

Thinkuknow is an education programme from the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command. Since 2006, Thinkuknow has been keeping children safe by providing education about sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. Thinkuknow is unique. It is underpinned by the latest intelligence about child sex offending from CEOP Command. Thinkuknow aims to ensure that everyone has access to this practical information – children, young people, their parents and carers and the professionals who work with them. Should you wish to make a report of online misuse, please click on the link within this section.

A series of simple 15 minute activities that families can use with children to encourage awareness about various digital safety issues can be found here.

Childnet’s mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to help make the internet a great and safe place for children. They work directly with children and young people from the ages of 3 to 18 on a weekly basis, as well as parents, carers, teachers and professionals, finding out about their real experiences online, and the positive things they are doing as well as sharing safety advice.  Practical advice and guidance to help families discuss the online world with their child, including simple conversation starters and advice on tackling difficult topics that may come up can be found here.

The Internet Watch Foundation is an organisation working with the internet industry, police and Government. The IWF was established in 1996 by the internet industry to provide the UK internet Hotline for the public and IT professionals to report criminal online content in a secure and confidential way.

The NSPCC web site also features online safety advice and links for parents and below you can find downloadable digital parenting magazines which give parents advice on online bullying and how to keep you and your children safe online.

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

New Safeguarding Hub for Parents

The Key Parent Resource Hub has created a safeguarding hub that allows parents to access interactive guidance on setting up parental controls on your child’s devices, as well as guidance on apps like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram and more.

Please use the unique link below to access this resource.

Safeguarding Training Centre | Parent online safety zone (thekeysupport.com)

How can we protect children from potential risks around accessing unsuitable content?

Risks include:

• children being able to search unsuitable content through tablets, televisions, smart speakers, phones etc,
• making in-app purchases and spending money from the parents account without knowledge or consent,
• some devices are more vulnerable to hacking and monitoring as there are no security standards in place for connected devices,
• internet-enabled toys such as action figures, drones or learning development toys may collect use and share personal information via the internet.

Ways we can protect children include:

• Talk to your child about the dangers of connected toys and devices, and supervise their use. No parental controls are a substitute for supervising your child.
• Research different products to make sure you are aware of the risks involved with what you are buying your children.
• Read the manual to find information about the privacy of the device and how to control the privacy settings.
• Set up parental controls through your broadband provider. Visit your broadband provider’s website for further information on what you can limit or stop.
• Enable safe search on your internet-connected devices to limit the material that can be searched online.
• Change the default password when you buy a connected device or toy and use a strong password that cannot be easily guessed.
• Make sure that your blue tooth devices are set to  undiscoverable to ensure that they can’t be connected to by nearby devices or so that your child can’t unintentionally pair with an unknown device.
• If your child’s toy uses speech commands it is likely that these have been recorded and saved on the device. The manual will show you how to review or delete these.

For further information regarding online safety please check the following link: A parent’s guide to being social online this December (thinkuknow.co.uk)