There has never been a guide to parenting in general, never mind a guide helping parents to deal with whatever new invention has landed on their doorstep. In this respect, nobody is in a position to give parents a shiny silver bullet that will solve all online potential issues and make it a safe environment. Let’s be honest, even the array of Lego bricks strewn all over the lounge floor is not safe, as many a bare foot will attest!
The added complication with all that is online is that it evolves at lightning speed. So even when some base rules and checks are in place, they need to be reviewed on a permanent basis. This is where communication comes into play and it is the single main highway to safety one can have in their household. We all need to talk. Parents to children and children to parents.
The very first thing any Online Safety Expert will tell you is to engage in regular dialogue with your child about what they do and see online… without any judgment. A parent needs to understand what Apps their child use, what they enjoy doing online, who they get to chat with, and what they find weird or worrying. These conversations need to become a regular part of normal home life and can happen when in the car, during walks or even to lighten the moments when chores are holding children home. The NSPCC can help with this here.
A parent also needs to understand what the online risks are. We have all heard snippets of things in the news and other conversations we have overheard, but what can actually happen? The sad reality is that psychological harms through exposure to images that are not age-appropriate is only the bottom rung of the issues. Death is right at the top, and that is not even a rare occurrence. Ofcom has helped with the Online Safety Act, but nothing is a substitute for family-based awareness and guidance. The current top sites for guidance are NSPCC, UK Safer Internet Centre, Internet Matters and Thinkuknow from the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP).
Parental controls and safety tools will all complement each other in ensuring that children are using the Internet in a positive way. Controls will help parents set age and time limits, as well as content restrictions. These have to be implemented on every single equipment used: phones, tablets, laptops, TVs and consoles. Through the conversations we mentioned above, parents will naturally encourage their children to come to them first if something worries them.
Parents will also have to teach children how to report content they find weird and abusive, how to block inappropriate behaviour, how to react in strange circumstances, and remind them that online behaviour has real-life consequences. Every household also needs healthy online habits: regular breaks, a balanced proportion between online and offline time, safe sharing practices.
All the links above will give Parents a good starting point to get to know what online threats are there. As first commented, Parents will have to ensure they keep in tune with the regular progress in both protection and aggression. Keep going back to the resources to ensure that your conversations are accurate and your preventative measures are as good as can be and are updated as soon as needed.