E-safety – keeping your child safe online
Live streaming: responding to the risks (National Crime Agency/CEOP)
Live streaming is a popular feature of lots apps and platforms. By understanding the risks of live streaming, we can help children stay safe when they are online. ThinkUKnow has produced a guide to help parents understand why live-streaming is so popular, and how to keep children safe.
You can find the article here: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/live-streaming-responding-to-the-risks/
CEOP
The NCA’s CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) Command is here to help children and young people. We are here to help if you are a young person and you or your friend (up to age 18) has been forced or tricked into taking part in sexual activity with anyone online, or in the real world. We also have advice and links to support for other online problems young people might face, such as cyberbullying and hacking. Visit our Safety Centre for advice and to report directly to CEOP, by clicking on the Click CEOP button.
Useful Resources for Parents
The Government has recently launched a brand new website to support parents. The website has been developed with Parentzone and CEOP, the police command responsible for child exploitation and online protection.
The parent guides are very useful: https://parentzone.org.uk/advice/parent-guides
https://parentinfo.org/ is a collection of articles, tips, expert advice and resources designed to help parents keep up with what their children are doing on-line. For example, the site currently includes information about staying safe on minecraft, mental health and building online resilience.
Please also see Saferinternet.
Parent and Carer Online Toolkit (Childnet)
The new non-statutory guidance published in the summer, Teaching Online Safety (2019, DfE), recommends that schools ‘Proactively [engage] staff, pupils and parents/carers in school activities that promote the agreed principles of online safety’ (see paragraph 42).
Childnet have updated their parent and carer toolkit that will help parents have conversations about online safety. Their booklet ‘Let’s talk about life online’ includes ten key messages that should be shared with children:
- “You can always come to me if you need help.”
- “What would you do if this happened…?”
- “Remember that not everyone is who they say they are online.”
- “Keep your personal information safe, and other people’s too.”
- “Be respectful to others online.”
- “Think before you post.”
- “Remember to ask if it’s okay.”
- “Remember not everything is true online.”
- “The things other people post online might not always show what their life is really like.”
- “Recognise how going online makes you feel and take a break when you need to.”
The Parent and Carer Toolkit can be found here: https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/parent-and-carer-toolkit
The 2 Johns
So far the roadshow has been seen by over 80000 children over the past year taking in Basildon, Thurrock, Maldon, Saffron Walden, Braintree and Brentwood along with many individual schools.”
The Two Johns lead the training and awareness sessions for pupils, staff and parents each year across our local schools. They deliver excellent sessions giving pertinent messages.
Please look at the link to their website for updated information regarding e-safety:
https://www.esafetytraining.org/resources
Thinkuknow Website
The following link has a ‘Parents’ Guide to the Internet’. It includes a TV-style programme available for public viewing, taking an entertaining and light-hearted look at what it’s like to bring up children in the online world – featuring practical tips and amusing clips from some surprising sources! Tune in to learn more about what your child is up to online and how you can support them: www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
It can seem difficult to keep up-to-date with the technology that children use. You can find out much more information and support about digital technologies here
NSPCC Online safety
This is a great source of support for parents.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
Prevent Duty
Educate Against Hate educateagainsthate.com
The government has recently launched a new website aimed at supporting parents, teachers and school leaders in implementing the Prevent Duty. There are some useful resources on the website including written advice and signposting to other organisations
Here is an easy to use parent guide to protecting children from hate, extremism and fake news online
Parent-toolkitonline-issues.226771329
Internet Matters
Online Safety: www.internetmatters.org
Internet Matters is an independent, not-for-profit organisation to help parents keep their children safe online.
National Online Safety Service
The National Online Safety Service have produced platform guides portal for schools, which are also useful for parents. You will find the most up to date guides for social media apps and platforms. Click on the icons below to find out more information about each app and to download our useful tips to help keep children safe.
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/
E-Safety Advice from Alan Mackenzie
Allan MacKenzie is a well-regarded fellow consultant who supports schools and parents specifically with eSafety. Alan sends out a free online safety magazine every 6 weeks or so. The magazine, ‘DITTO” is for schools, organisations and parents to keep you up to date with risks, issues, advice and guidance related to keeping children safe online, with a view to enjoying and learning about technology.
You can sign up to Alan’s DITTO magazine here: http://www.esafety-adviser.com/latest-newsletter/
He has also explained a few other pertinent areas below –
Family Agreement
The holidays are a great time to sit down with children and manage expectations. Some children will spend as much time online and playing games as they possibly can, but this isn’t practical, there has to be a balance between family and socialisation. Here’s a link to a family agreement template from Childnet
https://www.childnet.com/resources/family-agreement
Parental Controls
There are so many connected devices on the market now, each with their own unique way of setting up parental controls and restrictions. Equally the functionality of these devices can be daunting with chat, game downloads, in-app purchases, third party apps on the devices (such as social media, Netflix) etc.
I always advise parents two things. Firstly look up the device on YouTube using a simple ‘how to’ query, e.g. ‘how to restrict in-app purchases on Playstation 4’. Secondly, the wonderful people at Internet Matters have a one-stop shop for setting up devices which can be found here:
https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/
Advice by age
As well as devices, parents also need advice according to the age of their children. Again, Internet Matters has this covered for children 0-5, 6-10, 11-13 and 14+
https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/
Gaming
Gaming is likely to be high on the agenda for many children this holiday period. CEOP have a nice, simple guide for parents
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/gaming/
Internet Matters also has a gaming hub which is really useful for parents; it was updated a couple of months ago and has invaluable information
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/online-gaming-advice/
YouTube
If you haven’t seen the new YouTube app or site for children (<13) it’s worth a look. This is only a few weeks old and it’s quite good for the younger children
App: https://youtube.com/kids/
Web: https://www.youtubekids.com/
Social Media
Back to Internet Matters for this one; they have a really useful hub for parents which explains the risks and the benefits, along with some resources that parents can use
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/social-media-advice-hub/
Useful links and resources
List of Online Safety Resources Parents and Carers
Online Safety Resources Children and Young People
https://www.lgfl.net/online-safety/default.aspx (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers (tips and advice for parents)