Internet Safety for Children: A Guide for Parents, Carers and Teachers

In this modern day, digital world, children are far more aware of new and emerging technologies than the majority of their parents, so the battle for keeping them safe online can be a challenging one. With a variety of gadgets such as mobile phones, iPad’s and laptops all providing internet access; it is essential that we prepare our children with the vital information to keep them safe online.

The amount of information that people divulge on the internet can be a real problem, as a single piece of data could lead on to another person tracking that recipient down to their home address or current GPS location. This ‘bread crumb’ data trail can open doors to cyberbullying and much worse case scenarios such as online grooming. Thankfully there are measures that we can take to help enforce online safety so that our children are free to surf the web in a reduced risk environment.

Maintaining open, honest communication with your child about the types of websites they visit and what they actually spend their time doing online is a crucial part of the process. This method assists parents with knowing more about the types of content your son or daughter are exposed to whilst surfing the internet. There are some handy software tools which allow you to keep logs of online activity within the home. This can be achieved by setting up parental controls and enabling safe search on the family computer.

An informative parent’s guide has recently been launched by Vodafone which outlines the various technologies used by most teenagers and young children and the ways in which they use these technologies in their everyday life. It is advisable to familiarise yourself with as many of these topics as possible so that you are aware of the dangers, from a parents perspective.

Internet filtering is a method to grant and refuse access on certain websites and there are numerous types of this software currently available that will allow you to do this. If you select a program that displays the Child Safety Online Kitemark this signifies that the software has been tested (independently) in order to provide a simple method that supports parents to enforce internet safety for kids. Other areas that you may wish to investigate and learn about includes chat rooms, blogging, social networks, gaming, instant messaging and mobile features in addition to cyberbullying  and online grooming. The more of these topics you can cover, the more prepared you will be against protecting your family.