Know what your children are doing online and who they are talking to. Ask them to teach you to use any applications you have never used. Keeping the computer in a family room means that you can share your child's online experience - and that they are less likely to act inappropriately (i.e. via webcam).

Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends - personal information includes their messenger ID, email address, mobile number and any pictures of themselves, their family or friends. If your child publishes a picture or video online, anyone can change it or share it. Remind them that anyone may be looking at their images and one day a future employer could! If your child receives spam/junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them.

Top Tips!

• Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends they do not know offline.


• Explain to your children 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 children 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 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's not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they don't know. They won't 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's better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust.


• Always keep communication open for a child to know that it's never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.

Some useful links to e-safety related websites

Childnet's Chatdanger website gives details about the potential dangers of interactive activities like chat, instant messaging, online games, email and mobile phones. Read true stories and find out how to keep safe while chatting online.

www.chatdanger.com

This site from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre lets young people learn about e-safety and report abuse which occurred online. It contains lots of useful advice on e-safety, including advice on gaming, blogging

and mobile phones. There is an excellent short fi lm clip about grooming.

www.thinkuknow.co.uk

Get Safe Online is a 10-minute internet safety and computer security guide with useful links for both parents and teachers.

www.getsafeonline.org

Childnet's Digizen website gives guidance produced by Childnet for the Department for Children, Schools and Families on cyber bullying. It lists a range of resources suitable for teachers to use with pupils and contains a competition area

for young people.

www.childnet.com/digizen

REPORTING ILLEGAL CONTENT

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the UK hotline for reporting illegal content, specifi cally child abuse images hosted worldwide and content that is criminally obscene and/or an incitement to racial hatred, hosted in the UK. A prominent link

for reporting illegal content is available from the home page of the IWF website.

www.iwf.org.uk

ChildLine is a free and confi dential helpline offering general help and advice. Children and young people in the UK can call 0800 1111 to talk about any problem, 24 hours a day.

For further information, see the ChildLine website.

www.childline.org.uk