Online Safety

Keeping your Children Safe – Digital Safeguarding

Here are some things you may want to do to help your children 'Stay Safe' in the online world:

• Set ground rules and with younger children agree which websites they can visit. Remember these will vary depending upon the ages of your children.
• Agree time limits and regular breaks. Remember letting children play video games just before bedtime may stop them sleeping and have an impact on their learning.
• Find out how to set the parental controls and safe search. Consider buying parental monitoring/ control software for younger children. Remember none of these are 100% effective and supervision is always needed.
• Check the home page of your children's favourite social network, game and so on. This will give you an overview of the website and its suitability.
• Spend 30 minutes watching your children play an online game so that you can see the content and be happy that it is suitable for them.
• Check the age ratings of games at PEGI. Remember video games ratings are all about the content and not the difficulty of the game.
• Say NO to your child playing any game that has a rating of 18 years and above or using websites that you think are unsuitable.
• Talk to your children about their privacy settings and ask them to show you how to change these settings. Encourage your children to only have online friends that know in the real world.
• Tell your children what to do if they ever feel frightened or scared when online or using their mobile phone. It is important that your children know they can always talk to you and you will help them (you may not know the answer but by talking to the school, other parents, ThinkUknow FAQs, mobile phone provider and so on you will be able to find a solution.

Useful Websites

The following websites are useful for further guidance and support:

• BBC Own It - advice for children on online safety.
• Child Protection Company: eSafety Course for Parents - by taking the Parent eSafety course, you can work with your child to keep them safe on the internet and learn more about eSafety yourself as a parent.
• Childnet International - for primary children.
• Childnet International - for teachers and professionals.
• Everybody Plays - a parent's guide to games.
• Facebook Safety Centre - guides to Facebook settings.
• GetNetWise
• Internet Matters - a guide to help you through the many issues children can experience when using the internet.
• Internet Watch Foundation - the UK Hotline for reporting criminal online content.
• NSPCC - doing everything possible to keep childhood safe from abuse, so children can grow up healthy and thrive.
• Parent Info: Digital resilience - a parent's guide
• Parent Info: Snapchat - a parent's guide
• Parent Info: how to tell if your child is addicted to tech
• Parent Info: Pokemon Go - a parent's guide
• Report Online Terrorist Material (gov.uk) - report illegal terrorist information, pictures or videos you've found on the internet. Your report will be treated anonymously.
• Southwest Grid for Learning Staying Safe Resource
• ThinkUKnow - learning resource for children.
• Tiger Mobiles - how to protect your children on their smartphone.
• Transl8it
• UK Safer Internet Centre: Parental Controls - how to set up parental controls offered by your home ISP.

Useful Documents

• Advice for Parents on Cyberbullying (DfE)
• A Guide to Parental Controls
• A Parent's Guide to Facebook
• Child Safety on YouTube
• Facebook Checklist
• How to set up Facebook Privacy Controls
• How to set up Parental Controls on the Xbox 360 (Microsoft)
• How to set up Google Safe Search
• How to set up YouTube Safety Mode
• Inspecting E-Safety in Schools (Ofsted)
• Keeping up with Children on the Internet (Childnet International)
• Online Gaming: An Introduction for Parents and Carers (Childnet International)

The documents above are all in pdf format.

E-Safety Videos