Online Safety

Useful Web Links

If you are a parent or carer, we hope you will find the web links below useful.

Ditto Free Online Safety Magazine

#DITTO is a free online safety (e-safety) magazine in PDF format for schools, organisations and parents to keep you up to date with risks, issues, advice and guidance related to keeping children safe online, with a view to enjoying and learning about technology. A new edition is released approx. every 6 weeks.

Download the latest edition of the magazine

Useful Links for Parents from Alan McKenzie (e-safety advisor)

Advice by age:

Younger children need different advice and guidance than older children. Older children need different advice and guidance than teens. It can be really difficult keeping up with everything that is online and what risks and issues may affect children of different ages, so on these pages there is some age-related advice and guidance for parents and carers:

Pre-school - https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/0-5/
6 - 10 year olds - https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/6-10/
11 - 13 year olds - https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/11-13/
14 plus - https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/14plus/

Setting up devices:
It can be difficult knowing all the different settings that are available on different devices to help protect children, this includes allowing or disallowing chat, friends, spending money, content filters and much more. On these pages you will find the details, as well as non-technical instructions, which will help you understand what is available to you and how to set up your child's devices.

Gaming consoles and devices - https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/gaming-consoles/
Smartphones - https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/smartphones-and-other-devices/
Broadband and mobile networks - https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/broadband-mobile/
Entertainment and search engines - https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/entertainment-search-engines/

Safety/privacy settings on social media:
With many children and young people using social media it is important to understand what features are available to you to help protect your children. This is also important because for the most part, all privacy settings are default off when a new account is created, but also because some social media providers change their features quite frequently, e.g. TikTok.
Take a look at this link to see what is available to you and how to set up your child's social media. We would also advise doing this with your child so that you can discuss the features together.

https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/social-media/

Useful new features on YouTube and YouTube Kids
YouTube is hugely popular with all age groups but historically parents haven't had a lot of control over what their children can/cannot watch. But things have changed and YouTube now gives parents a greater degree of control. It isn't perfect but it is a step in the right direction. Take a look at the page below where you will see a few short videos of newer features that can help you on YouTube and YouTube Kids.

https://www.esafety-adviser.com/youtube-parental-restrictions/

Gaming

Finding good games, as well as knowing what is appropriate for the age of the child isn't easy, particularly when there can be lots of peer pressure to play the more popular games which are not always appropriate. Taming Gaming is a great resource for parents to find new games for children as well as lots of advice about content, suitability etc.

https://www.taminggaming.com/

Internet Matters – setting up devices, games and apps – click HERE

Common Sense Media – game reviews – click HERE

Taming Gaming – for parents – click HERE

YouTube Supervised Experience (new YouTube parental settings) – click HERE

YouTube – share content to YouTube Kids app (parent allowlisting) – click HERE

YouTube – comprehensive guide for families – click HERE

Online abuse of children with SEND – click HERE

Internet Matters – online critical thinking guide – click HERE

Parents Guide – Discovering Digital at Primary School – Click HERE