Most parents would be alert to things like smartphones,
tablets, laptops and computers, those are the really obvious things
but they might not think about the things that aren’t as obvious like
smart TVs, gaming consoles and even the home Wi-Fi device.
All of these items have got settings that parents can use to
restrict the kind of content that their children can access, it allows
them to restrict the kinds of websites they can access, the kinds
of programs that can be downloaded and they kind of functions that are
available within those systems.
Parents are really alert to the risks that may exist online so
having some really good basic ground rules is always your
starting point. Knowing how to set up a strong password and not
sharing that with other people.
Kids will know not to give out their full name and phone number and
home address and date of birth and the really great thing about
that is parents can establish those rules at home and they are
reinforced in our schools when they do cyber safety with students
at school.
And those are good ground rules but what that looks like in real-life
can be a little bit uncertain for kids. So kids who might know that
they shouldn’t give out their school details would be quite happy
to post a picture of themselves in their school uniform.
They might know for example not to give out their address but
might film a YouTube video with their address in the background
or their house in the background. Those are the kinds of things that
kids might not be alert to so parents really do need to have
that involvement so they can just keep an eye out.
It is harder for parents, it is more of a challenge now because
we’ve got so many different types of devices and they are
so portable so, again, having those ground rules around
what’s accessed and when is so important. Probably a good
starting point is always to make sure that these devices are used
in the shared areas of the house so that you can keep an eye on
your children when they’re actually online.
Parent should certainly be checking the browser history on
their children’s devices and on their computers and probably
something to be alert to is that kids are pretty savvy these
days so an empty internet browser history is probably just
as concerning as one that has some inappropriate sites on it.
Parents are alert to the risks that are online and they do
want to protect their children so some parents for example
will put some limitations on their children’s access to
social media but would still be quite happy for them to
do online gaming thinking that it’s a safer option.
The same kinds of risks apply because a lot of online games
these days have chat functions, have teleconferencing
functions and have actual social media profiles attached
to it. So the same rules apply around knowing what your
child is doing, knowing who they’re interacting with, the
kinds of conversations that are occurring and providing some
parental involvement and engagement around that.
We know that parenting is all about open communication
and that honesty with your children and that absolutely
extends to online safety.
Being able to have honest conversations with your kids
about what they’re doing online, what they’re interested
in, who they’re interacting with, it’s a fantastic element
of online safety.
And when we find that children are able to have these
very honest, open conversations with their parents about the
good things that are happening, they’re much more likely to
feel safe about raising any problems that they’re having
but also to have the opportunity to be able to do so.
The internet is a wonderful resource for children and
parents and we know that we can actually use it to bring
out the best in ourselves so with some good ground rules,
some open communication and some parental involvement and
engagement, parents can unite to build a better internet.