Advice for parents
The list of websites on this page provide comprehensive information about online safety and once parents and carers have a wider knowledge and understanding of the issues, they can decide what is right for their family.
The internet is an exciting and fun place for adults and children to use and explore educationally and socially. The challenge for parents, carers and teachers is to make sure our children are aware and understand how to be safe when using the internet and related technologies.
Here are some websites dedicated to particular areas of e-safety:
Free ISP Parental Controls
The UK Safer Internet Centre has been working with BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media to produce a new resource for parents and carers: Video guides for the free ISP parental controls. The videos are available on the Safer Internet Centre website and the films can be embedded or downloaded.
Video guides for the free ISP parental controls
Digital Parenting
Vodafone has produced an online magazine called 'Digital Parenting' to help parents understand and get involved with their children's digital world. The magazine is very readable, informative and provides advice on a range of ESafety issues, such as location services, sexting, cyberbullying and illegal content.
To order a copy of the magazine, email publications@parentfocus.co.uk or visit their website.
Computer Games and Your Kids - What every parent needs to know
Schools are increasingly reporting the impact video gaming is having on children's education, achievement, behaviour and sleep. The Radio Verulam's programme 'Parents Show' focuses on the need for parental engagement, appropriate boundaries and research about the effects of gaming on behaviour and sleep.
This, along with many other topics, is available as a podcast - Click here
Home Halo
Home Halo piggybacks on your home Wifi so you can keep your kids safe online, on every device they use. Whether you are at home or at work, Home Halo lets you manage your children’s internet from the palm of your hand. This is a subscription service which provides a lot of services to help you manage the amount of time your children spend online and what sites they are accessing. You can set your own time boundaries for Wifi access and enable or disable particular websites. Please see the website for more information. https://www.homehalo.net/abouthomehalo
OYOTY: the online safety assistant for your children that lives in their smartphone
Empowering children to be safer online
Online child safety solutions have long been synonymous with parental control, monitoring and restrictions. Apart from leaving children out of the learning process and promoting ‘underground’ behaviors such solutions are largely ineffective and even counter-productive as per the latest research from the London School of Economics. With proliferation of tablets and smartphones among very young children and growing use of online applications- it becomes ever more important to involve the children in managing their online safety.
OYOTY is a personal robotic assistant for young children online which helps them be more aware, secure and private online and to engage positively with digital media. Based on a deep learning engine, OTOTY delivers contextual education and help to children through an advanced user interface (chat-bot).
For more information please visit their website: https://www.oyoty.com/
Internet Watch Foundation to assist with the removal of images in the internet domain, https://www.iwf.org.uk/
New Childline website for under 12s
Childline has launched a website aimed at children under 12 which provides age appropriate content on topics including bullying, family, friends, feelings, school, abuse and staying safe. It also includes games and therapeutic tools for young visitors to play and express how they are feeling.
It will be promoted through the NSPCC's Speak out Stay safe programme
https://www.childline.org.uk/kids
For regular updates on what is trending in the online safety world please visit the link below. We will be using some of the games with children in Key Stage one form this website to help support the children to use the internet positively and to know how to spot the signs of negative behaviour. We hope to empower children to talk to grownups about both the good things and the things that they are unsure of that they see on the internet.
https://www.telenor.com/digiworld-en/
Safer Internet day is on the 5th of February 2019. We will be exploring the internet with the children in school but there are some interesting resources that you may wish to use at home with your children to help keep the conversations flowing about online activity. Below is the link to the Safer Internet website where there are some ideas for conversations starters and places you can go to have your questions answered.
National Online Safety
This link provides you with guides to tackle the most current online issues affecting young people. There are guides linked to social media, one off events like MoMo and other frequently asked questions. You can download ideas for how to tackle these topics with your children and guides to using the apps in order to ensure you are keeping your young people safe.
https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/
External links
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/ Safer Internet Centre
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/safe-internet-explorers/ NSPCC Safer internet explorers
https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/ Supporting you with online abuse
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/share-aware/ A great resource to help you and your children make safe choices online.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/ ThinkuKnow
http://parentinfo.org/articles/all – Description: http://parentinfo.org/sites/default/files/button.png
http://www.swgfl.org.uk/products-services/Online-Safety-Services/E-Safety-Resources/So-You-Got-Naked-Online/Content/Sexting-Toolkit.aspx- Sexting help – So you got naked online?
https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/protecting-childrens-privacy/ -Protecting Children’s Privacy – A Guide for Parents, Carers and Educators –
https://www.bestvpn.com/internet-safety/ - Internet Safety: How to Keep Kids and Teens Safe Online