Keeping Kids Safe Online – Has it Clicked Yet?

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Are you happy that your children know how to stay safe online?

With the summer holidays upon us, our tech savy youngsters – from tots to teens – will be spending more time than usual on the web.

However, new figures from Get Safe Online have shown that four in 10 parents (39 per cent) in the North East think their child would be safer playing outside.

But in spite of their concerns about their children’s safety, a third (34 per cent) admitted they had no parental controls in place.

Today Inspector Rich Osgerby from the force Cyber Crime unit is urging parents to take a proactive approach in ensuring their children can surf in safety.

He said: “It was a relief to hear that of those who do have parental controls in place, more than two thirds (69 per cent) block their children from accessing inappropriate content and more than half (55 per cent) monitor their access to devices.

“What was even more pleasing, is that more and more parents are having open conversations with their children about the potential dangers of the online world and how to avoid them.

“With children as young as three or four now regularly accessing online content and apps, advice on how to keep them safe is very different to the tips for parents with older children and teens.

“But we do have lots of tips and information for various age groups on the force website.”

Basic steps

Whatever the age of your children, there are some basic steps you can take to help protect them online:

Talk to them regularly about their online lives and guide them as you would with any other aspect of their life.

Don’t be afraid to set boundaries from a young age.

Try out some of the apps, social networks and sites your child visits for yourself

Speak to your friends and family – and other parents – about what they do. Exchanging experiences and advice can be valuable.

Make use of parental controls on devices and consoles, as well as privacy features in apps and social networking sites. Explore the safety options in Goole and other search engines to limit the content they are able to access and opt into your Internet Service Provider’s family filters.

Install reputable parental control software, which will limit what your child can access and how long they spend online. Make sure it’s regularly updated.

Changes in your child’s behaviour or mood may be a sign they’re being bullied.

Many social networking and picture sharing sites have minimum age limits – find out what they are and remember they’re there for a reason.

Measures in place

According to the Get Safe Online research, it appears many parents in the North East are already having regular conversations with their children or have taken some steps to limit the content they can access.

25 per cent use parental controls from their ISP and 48 per cent use safe browsers such as Google SafeSearch.

61 per cent advise their children to steer clear of pop-ups and links

52 per cent have advised their child what to do if approached by a stranger online, with four in 10 limiting access to online devices in places easily seen by the whole family.

63 per cent have talked about what to do about online bullying

45 per cent have agreed on a list of appropriate websites with their child.

Get Safe Online’s CEO Tony Neate said:

“Technology is now a given for children, but the online world changes so fast – we’ve seen that over the last few weeks with the mass uptake of Pokémon GO which now brings the online world into physical environments and a whole new set of risks.

“Our children in the North East are growing up to be extraordinarily tech-savvy which does make it difficult for parents to keep control of what they are doing online. And we can see that many are worried about the risks their kids face when they are browsing, playing games and watching content on computers and other devices.

Last year, Ofcom found that over half of 3-4 year olds and three-quarters of 12-15 year olds were using tablets.

“It’s promising to see that parents are beginning to use a variety of measures to educate their children about online safety, by having open and honest conversations with them about the potential risks and dangers and setting down clear rules – and also using technology controls. But over a third still aren’t using the tools available to monitor usage and block, and even more worryingly, not even talking to their children about online stranger danger.

“For all parents, technology can be a real blessing in keeping their children busy and entertained over the long summer holidays. And right at the start is a great time to make sure you have clear conversations with children about the risks of being online as well as look into some of the technology tools you can use to help. These tools are surprisingly easy to use, we have details of what is available and how to use them on getsafeonline.org.”

  • More information on what you need to know about Pokémon GO


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