Online Safety

Keeping our children safe online 

Parental Controls: parents do not need to be good at using technology to set them up. See teh handy parental controls checkliste below. 

Parental controls can be set so that for example, children and young people cannot download an app, be added to a group chat, add a contact or access websites that are not pre-approved unless the parent approves it from their device.

Healthy boundaries can be set so e.g. smartphones have limited functionality during set time periods – for example, during school hours and after a set time at night – perhaps only able to make or receive telephone calls to important pre-authorised contacts, e.g. their parent(s) during social times or after a certain time of night – unless the parent approves otherwise.

Also, parents should be the only people in their household who have the master Admin password for their home broadband to change settings, filters and remove devices from their Wi-Fi network.

• Parental controls for Apple devices: Use parental controls on your child's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – Apple Support (UK)

• Parental controls for Android devices: Android parental controls: A guide for parents - Android Authority

• Parental controls for Google devices: How to set up parental controls on Google Play - Google Play Help / Family Link from Google - Family Safety & Parental Control Tools (families.google)

• Online Safety guidance: www.thinkuknow.co.uk / www.internetmatters.org / www.getsafeonline.org / E-safety Guides for Schools | National Online Safety / www.nationalonlinesafety.com / Online Safety Guides & Resources for Parents (nationalcollege.com)

• Block pop-ups: guide to stop children assessing inappropriate content through accidently clocking on adverts in pop-ups – How to block pop ups in Windows - Tech Advisor

• Gaming: Keeping children safe online | NSPCC