Tuesday 9th February is Internet Safety Day Make your child safer online by encouraging them to always follow these simple guidelines. Help your child to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends they do not know offline.
Explain to your child what information about them is personal, i.e. email address, mobile number, school name, sports club, arrangements for meeting up with friends and any pictures or videos of themselves, their family or friends. Small pieces of information can easily be pieced together to form a comprehensive insight in to their lives and daily activities.
Make your child aware that they need to think carefully about the information and pictures they post on their profiles. Inform them that once published online, anyone can change or share these images of them.
It can be easy to forget that the internet is not a private space, and as a result sometimes young people engage in risky behaviour online. Advise your children not to post any pictures, videos or information on their profiles, or in chat rooms, that they would not want a parent or carer to see.
If your child receives spam or junk email and texts, remind them never to believe their contents, reply to them or use them.
It is not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they do not know. They will not know what they contain, it could be a virus, or worse, an inappropriate image or film.
Help your child to understand that some people lie online and that therefore it is better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust present.
Always keep communication open for a child to know that it is never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.
Other useful websites:
www.ceop.gov.uk/ www.getnetwise.org/ www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
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