Keeping safe on line

Keeping your child safe online

Education around safe use is essential. It is important that parents speak to their children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online. Your support in achieving these aims is essential.

Online does not just include visiting the internet on a PC, most mobile devices such as phones and tablets also have internet connections via WiFi (e.g Router at Home) and the service providers data services (Mobile Data e.g 3G/4G). You should try and agree rules with your child on how to stay safe:

• Try to make sure your child's computer screen is always visible to you when they are using it.
• Install a parental filter that restricts their browsing to safe sites only (note these are not 100% effective as not all sites have rating tags, but parental filters included with anti-virus software can be more effective as they monitor and maintain a list of un-safe sites).
• Restrict their Internet access times to ‘safe’ times. This can also be done in your home router automatically so they cannot access the Internet during selected times (check the router’s user guide or contact your Internet Service Provider on how to set it up).
• Teach your children the dangers that they could come into contact with on line, and that the people that contact them are not always who they say they are, and teach them NEVER to physically meet with anyone they make contact with on line unless you are with them (if you consider it safe to do so).
• Explain that they should not open attachments that come with an email, as they can contain viruses and/or inappropriate images or movies.
• Explain that some people online lie about who they are and use photos of others (possibly their friends) to try and fool them into thinking they are talking with a friend or person the same age, when they are really a much older person that is trying to get close to them. They should never meet up with anyone they meet online.

Here are some useful links.

Online Gaming Information useful links

Playstation Network/PS4

Privacy Settings | Parental Controls

Steam for Windows/Mac

Privacy Settings | Parental Controls

Xbox Live/Xbox One

Privacy Settings | Parental Controls

Xbox Family Settings - for parents

Microsoft has recently released some new management features that parents can use. Available for iOS and Android, it is a free download and it has some great features, e.g.:

• Create new child accounts
• Manage screen time limits (including grant more time)
• Accept or decline friend requests
• View and manage friends list