E-Safety

Recommendation for parents/carers

Have a conversation

It is really important to chat with your children on an ongoing basis about staying safe online. Not sure where to begin? These conversation starter suggestions can help.

• Ask your children to tell you about the sites they like to visit and what they enjoy doing online. • Ask them about how they stay safe online. What tips do they have for you, and where did they learn them? What is OK and not OK to share?

• Ask them if they know where to go for help, where to find the safety advice, privacy settings and how to report or block on the services they use.

• Encourage them to help someone! Perhaps they can show you how to do something better online or they might have a friend who would benefit from their help and support.

• Think about how you each use the internet. What more could you do to use the internet together?
 
Staying safe when out and about

If children are taking their devices out of the home, it’s worth bearing in mind that they could connect to public wifi, for example, in a shop, cafe or restaurant. Look out for the Friendly WiFi symbol which shows that the wifi has filters in place to limit access to pornographic content.

NSPCC

Share Aware Campaign launched in January 2015, was developed due to the NSPCC’s research findings that parents:

• quite often feel confused by the internet – out of their depth, and out of control. Share Aware is for parents of children aged 8-12 and is designed to help to reassure and give parents everything they need to keep their children safe.

The campaign breaks down into 5 sections:

1. Net Aware – a no-nonsense guide to the social networks, sites and apps children use

2. Share Aware – parent’s guide on how to talk to children about staying safe online

3. Talking Tips – tips on how to start a conversation with your child about online safety

4. Online Safety Advice – for parents about keeping their child safer online

5. Online Course – Introductory training for anyone who works with children.