Online Safety

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Some ideas for keeping your children safe on the internet

Good communication is the key to keeping your children safe on the internet. Treat the internet as if it is your kitchen:

You make it as safe as possible by not leaving boiling pans and sharp knives lying around.
You supervise your children when they’re in there because you know there are dangers.
You teach your children about what is safe and what isn’t.
You trust your children to follow the guidance you have given them.

Important points to remember

Almost all communication devices can now access the internet including mobile phones and games consoles.
Good communication between you and your children is crucial to keeping them safe.

Things to think about:

Supervise children’s time on the internet. Make this easy by placing the computer somewhere in the house where you can see what they’re doing.
Make sure your children feel confident about telling you if they have accessed something inappropriate by accident.
Set parental locks on browsers and operating systems to minimise the risks.
Ask your children about what they are using the computer for – find out as much as possible about what they do when they’re on the computer and make suggestions for more useful ways to spend their time – see links section on the school website.
If you are concerned about what they are accessing then have a look at the internet history.
Install Hector the Protector on your computer at this website:

Useful Websites

Information and Guidance for parents:

Excellent video resource with various language options.

Good information site, clearly divided into sections.

Useful website including how-to video tutorials.

Information and Guidance for children:

Lots of interactive activities for children to do which teach them about using the internet safely.

Well-established charity that provide guidance and advice to children on staying safe and reporting problems.

Games and guidance from National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (American).

Child-friendly search engines:

Directory of search engines that filter as much inappropriate content as possible.

Reporting problems:

Information about reporting incidents and problems to the police.

Organisation that monitors child safety on the internet.

Internet Safety Tools:

Free download that gives children a button to press that covers the screen if anything inappropriate appears.

If you would like to view this information in pdf format for printing, please click here.