Teach your child never to share their real name, address, telephone number, photos of themselves or those taken in their home location or other personal information online, without talking to you first, even if they believe they are talking to a friend. Most children will happily say they do this but will then happily give their name to someone they think is a child online!
Even the best parent cannot expect to keep up to date with the latest APPs and social media used by children so ask your own child to teach you. Learn how they use and mobiles, gaming consoles, tablets etc and see what they use. Remember that you need to be on the internet journey with your child at the start and investigate each APP/stop with them! Don't be the parent who put them on the train with their first mobile and waved them off alone into the unknown.
Keeping devices a family room means that you can share your child’s online experience and that they are less likely to act inappropriately, however this is not practicable with the use of laptops, smaller mobile devices and tablets that are available today. If your child posts a picture or video online, anyone can change or share it. Teach them to only post pictures they would be willing to share with close family members. Anyone may be looking at their images both now and in the future and one day this could be a future employer!
If your child receives spam/junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or open them. Teach them about "fake news" and the fact that not everything on the internet is true.
Teach your child not to open messages or accept friend requests or muti-player game invites from people they don’t know. They could contain an inappropriate image, threat or bribe. Help your child to understand that some people lie online and therefore it’s better to keep "online" friends online and not meet up with them in real life. Click here for parent advice on this: https://esafetytraining.org/resources/parents-carers-area/messaging-video-apps/
Consider looking at your child’s texts and emails. This is a personal decision for you as a parent but if a strange adult approached your child in the street and spoke to them…would you go over and listen in or leave them and say you respect their privacy?
Teach children how to block someone online and how to report them if they feel uncomfortable.
Always keep communication open between you and your child. Never threaten to ban or confiscate the mobile device…they will just go online without telling you! Make sure they know that it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable. Tell them you are there to support them, not judge them and you do not want to stop them from having an on-line existence. Ask them who they could tell if telling you is too hard!
Agree screen free times as a whole family. https://esafetytraining.org/resources/parents-carers-area/screen-time/
Use age appropriate resources together with your child whatever their age. https://esafetytraining.org/resources/childrens-area/ Parents: Supporting Young People Online (Childnet) https://www.childnet.com/ufiles/Supporting-Young-People-Online.pdf
