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Online safety

Keeping children safe online

As practitioners, we should be aware that people who are unknown to children and young people can communicate with them via the internet. We need to remind children, young people, their parents and carers of these dangers and how to stay safe.

If a child has access to a mobile, tablet, laptop or games console here are some things to consider:  

Advise the parents to set up parental control on all the devices that their child uses.

This includes those devices that belong to other family members when a child uses them.

Setting parental controls will help to keep children safe while they are online by:

  • blocking inappropriate content 
  • limiting in-app purchases
  • managing which apps children are allowed to download

Parents and carers can set up parental controls on individual devices and their home wifi. Most service providers will offer free parental control services and will provide help to activate this if required.

Make sure that they activate the privacy settings on each app that a child or children use, as well as ensuring that location sharing is ‘off’ on their device. 

Most mobile phone providers offer free parental control services which limit the content children can access via the mobile network to items suitable for under 18s.

However, they may not always be automatically switched on. Check with the service provider that the parental control settings are switched on, and ask for them to be switched on if they are not.

This is particularly important if the phone was used by an adult before.

Parental controls and security settings are not 100% accurate and are no substitute for open and honest conversations with children and young people. 

It's important to explain, especially to younger children, what is meant by ‘inappropriate,’ by using language they will understand.

Make sure that they know if something they see online upsets them or makes them worried, then they should always tell someone.

Regularly have open and honest conversations about:

  • what they are doing online and who they are talking to
  • remind them of the importance of not talking to or accepting friend requests from people they don’t know in real life
  • encourage them to keep all personal information such as passwords, phone numbers, friend and school address details private
  • remind them that people might not be who they say they are online. It is very easy for people to set up accounts, with fake names, identities and photos, to make us all believe that they are someone they are not
  • warn them that the things they write and the photos they post online might be accessed by people other than their friends, if they don’t keep their accounts private

  • highlight the risks of meeting people in person that your child only knows online. Meeting people met online in real life can pose many risks. Encourage children and young people to be open and honest with you or a trusted adult if someone asks to meet with them.

Social networks and gaming platforms

Most children and young people will be accessing the most popular social network sites and gaming platforms. 

Snapchat is a social media app where users share photos, videos and text.

A ‘snap’ is on-screen for up to 10 seconds before disappearing—though there is an option to have no time limit.

Snapchat Story is a feature that lets you share snaps in a sequence for up to 24 hours.

For help and advice from Snapchat, follow the links below:

You can upload photos or videos to Instagram and share them with followers or with a select group of friends.

Users can view, like or comment on posts.

For help and advice from Instagram, follow the links below:

TikTok is extremely popular with children and young people. It's a free app for making and sharing short videos.

The videos are tall, as on Snapchat or Instagram’s stories.

You navigate through videos by scrolling up and down through a feed.

For help and advice from TikTok, follow the links below:

YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos.

Users can also create and upload their own videos to share with others.

For help and advice from YouTube, follow the links below:

Facebook is currently the largest social networking site in the world with over 2 billion active users.

It allows users to connect and share with their family and friends online.

Users create their own profile page which they can regularly update.

Facebook Messenger allows users to chat either one to one or in groups. 

For help and advice from Facebook follow the links below:

The Xbox Family Settings app lets the organisers (adults) in a family group manage their kids’ gaming activities from their iOS and Android phones.

The app enables you to feel secure about your child playing online.

The Xbox app allows you to:

  • receive messages sent to your child
  • listen in on conversations they are having
  • add or delete friend requests
  • set child restrictions

For help and advice from Xbox follow the links below:

The PlayStation app allows you to:

  • set age restrictions
  • manage how long your child plays each day
  • receive messages sent to your child
  • set multiple layers of passcode protection

For help and advice from PlayStation, follow the links below:

Are you worried or want to report an online concern?

If something has happened to a child or young person online you can make a report to the National Crime Agency for Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP).

CEOP helps keep children and young people safe from sexual abuse and grooming online.

If you’re worried that a child or young person is being groomed online or sexually exploited, you should report your concerns via the CEOP website and follow your service's safeguarding protocol.

You should always report if a child or young person is or has been in contact with someone who is:

  • chatting online to your child about sex
  • asking them to do sexual things on webcam
  • asking to meet up if they’ve only met them online
  • requesting sexual pictures
  • forcing them into sexual activity
  • making them feel unsafe

For information and guidance for parents of children and young people who have got in trouble online see the Parents Protect website.

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