Online Safety for Parents
Starting the conversation
Talking regularly with your child is the greatest tool to help keep them safe online. Talking regularly and making it part of daily conversation, like you would about their day at school, will help your child feel relaxed. It also means when they do have any worries, they’re more likely to come and speak to you.
But it can also be easy to become overwhelmed with the different technology, the language that children use, the huge number of games and apps which are available and the potential risks.
We have put together a page specifically to support children to stay safe online, so one way to start this conversation would be to look at the tips and advice together:
Online Safety for Kids (Pupils menu tab)
#BeChallengeAware
We recently did a workshop for parents in aid of the BeChallengeAware campaign, which aims to help parents to become more aware of how to keep their children safe from dangerous online challenges. We also shared some key messages around how to keep your child safe when using devices at home. See the slides below to look through the key messages from the workshop:
Parental Controls on New Devices
parental controls on new devices.pdf
For more in depth step-by-step parental control guides, click the link below and search for your specific device:
Parental Control Guides for online Devices and Broadband
Google Family Link
We know many of our pupils enjoy using various digital devices for different purposes, however it is increasingly challenging for parents to monitor what children are doing and to keep them safe. That is why we recommend that parents take advantage of one of the various applications available to help you monitor your child’s use of their digital devices, and take a leading role in keeping them safe online. One specifically effective way of doing this is to use ‘Google Family Link.’
This app allows parents to:
- set screen time limits for your child's device;
- control what apps your child downloads;
- provide content filtering options;
- lock your child’s device remotely at any time;
- track the location of your child’s device.
Click here for more information on the App, and guidance for how to set it up on your devices.
Further advice and support
It may feel daunting to talk about staying safe online – especially when your children are using the internet differently to you. We have put together a sequence of links and resources for advice and support to help:
Online Safety Parent Guides (Simple and Concise from Safetynet)
NSPCC dedicated online safety advice and resources
LGFL 'ParentSafe' resource hub
Setting up Parental Controls at home
Online Safety and remote learning - 6 top tips
Popular Apps
Click the links below for advice on how to keep children safe on various popular Apps: