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Internet safety
The internet has become a valuable part of everyday life for many children, but parents are rightly concerned about the dangers it can pose. These are some suggested guidelines to follow, but the single most important thing is to ensure your children always talk to you about what they are looking at on the internet and any problems they encounter.
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Think seriously about using Internet filtering software, walled gardens and child-friendly search engines. Use your browser's controls where these offer varying levels of security for each family member.
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Check out the child protection services from your internet service provider, for example, do they filter for spam? If not, ask them why they don’t.
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Keep the computer(s) in a communal area of the house, where it is easier to monitor what your children are viewing.
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Insist children do not give out their personal details. If they want to subscribe to any services online, make up a family email address to receive the mail. Keep all personal information secret. This includes name, age, sex, home address, phone numbers, bank details, pin numbers, passwords and user names.
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If it is necessary to supply details for registration, or to buy something, your children should always ask for permission and help from you.
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Kids love to ‘chat’, but make sure they only use moderated chatrooms. Monitor the chatrooms they are using and encourage them to introduce you to their online friends. No one should visit private areas of chat rooms. All chat rooms visited should be moderated and child friendly.
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Your children should never arrange to meet someone they have met via the internet.
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Encourage your children to tell you if they feel uncomfortable, upset or threatened by anything they see online. If they receive frightening, or bullying emails, or any spam with unacceptable content they should tell you. It is not their fault that they have received them and they must always feel confident in talking to you about anything which makes them unhappy.
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Involve your children in writing your own family code of acceptable Internet use. Remember that what is acceptable for a teenager is not necessarily all right for a primary school child so get their input.
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Surf the web together. Go online with your children and become part of their online life. Communication is the key to safe surfing.
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Your children should only use child-friendly search engines like Yahooligans or AskJeeveskids.
Discover how to keep your kids safe online with a new website for parents
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Some lucky children might have games consoles, computers, portable media players (think iPod Touch), MP3 players or mobile phones. These technological wonders open up hours of fun and, because they can link to the internet, allow all sorts of opportunities to communicate with friends . . . and strangers. But do you know what your child is doing in the virtual world?
Some of the new technology and terminology can baffle parents and carers. It can also alarm them - what with frequent stories in the media about spam, online grooming, cyber-bullying and video messaging. It's hard to protect children when you aren't as familiar with the technology as they are.
To help with such concerns, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is running a Christmas campaign, which highlights how kids use new technologies and how you can keep them safe in online environments.
Located at: www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents, the website, explains the importance of teaching children to apply the same caution and care in the virtual world as they do in the real world.
CEOP have devised three simple questions to gauge parents' awareness - how would you fare?
Can you name three social networking sites?*
Do you know how many emails your child sends a day?
Do you know what ASL or POS stand for?**
And because advances in these areas are rapid and are quickly picked up by kids - for example Enpresence and Dodgeball, social networks that work on mobiles, notify you when one of your 'contacts' is physically nearby - CEOP have set up monthly email updates on new and emerging technologies. You can register for these updates on the ThinkUKnow website page.
Related links
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website
thinkuknow website
*Examples of social networking sites are: MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Piczo, Faceparty, Twitter, Hi5, LiveJournal
**That's Age Sex Location (to find out personal details about the chatter) and Parent Over Shoulder (meaning they can't really talk). So now you know! |
Most schools will now have an Acceptable Use Policy for use of the internet (including emails) within school. This should be made available to you, as parents. You will also probably be asked to sign a consent form for your child to use the internet in school.
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