Advice for keeping children safe online

Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire County Council are running a week of awareness activity in the lead up to National Child Exploitation Day on 18 March.

Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire County Council are running a week of awareness activity in the lead up to National Child Exploitation Day on 18 March.

Today we are offering advice to help keep children safe online.

Setting parental controls

You can use parental setting on a computer or console to make sure your child’s personal information is only seen by people they want to share it with or to control your child’s gaming.

This could be to block your child from playing certain games that may have inappropriate content or from playing online unsupervised.

To find out how to use these setting look at the user manual or the manufacturers website. You can also contact your internet service provider or mobile phone operator.

However, be aware some sites are totally open to the public.

Learn about and make sure your child knows about the safety tolls available to them on the service they are using. This might include a block function to stop unwanted contact or the option of pre-approving comments posted onto their profile before they are made public.

Although your child may be able to limit who has access to their profile, their profile/screen name shouldn’t include their real name.

Useful link:

Using parental controls - https://bit.ly/3pTeowW

 

Staying safe when using social media

These steps will help to keep your child safe when using social media:

• Make sure they don’t publish personal information about their location, email address, phone number or date of birth
• Make sure your child is very careful about what images and messages they post, even amongst trusted friends – once they are online they can be shared widely and are extremely difficult to get removed
• Encourage them to talk to you if they come across anything they find offensive or upsetting
• Keep a record of anything abusive or offensive they’ve received and report any trouble to the site management (most sites have a simple reporting procedure, normally activated by clicking on a link on the page)
• If your child makes an online friend and wants to meet up with them in real life you should go along with them to check the person is who they say they are
• Tell them to be aware of online scams – offers which seem too good to be true usually are
• Encourage them not to get into online discussions about sex as these tend to attract potentially dangerous users
• If you suspect someone may be grooming you child on a social networking site, or your child is being stalked or harassed, you should contact police or the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Useful links:

Staying safe online - https://bit.ly/3tFr1wF

CEOP website - https://bit.ly/3KzFjFX

 

Tips for staying safe while playing games online

You can help keep your child safe by following these tips:

• chat to them about their gaming and ask who they are in contact with
• research games before deciding whether they are right for your child – consumer opinion forums are widely available online, along with publications and websites dedicated to reviewing games
• familiarise yourself with the games to check they’re suitable – you can do this by playing them yourself or by watching your child playing them
• get them to use a screen name that doesn’t include any clues about their real name
• advise them to never give out personal information such as their email address, phone number or location
• encourage them to tell you if they are being bullied or if there are any users they feel uncomfortable about - many games have the facility to ‘block’ other players
• report any threatening or suspicious behaviour to the game’s administrators or to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP)

 

Acceptable internet usage

Having acceptable internet usage rules in your house can help you keep you child safe. Examples might include:

• The internet-connected computer must be in a family room with the screen facing outward so you can see what's going on
• If your child accidentally goes to an unsuitable website they should tell you - you can remove it from the 'history' folder and add the address to the parental control filter list
• It's never OK to use abusive or threatening language in any online communication
• Your child should take breaks from the computer every 30 minutes for health and safety reasons
• Your child shouldn't download unknown files from the internet without you agreeing - it’s best to never download unknown files at all

 

Posted by SJC, Corporate Communications