Keep children safe online

Most of the internet safety videos on YouTube are 2, 3, 4 or more years old. This one was made in 2014. By now parents and teachers would have some good tips and tricks for keeping students and children safe online. We need to keep those practices current and public. We always need to be having online safety  conversations because the internet, devices and apps are always changing. New apps and devices can bring new safety issues. It’s important to remind children to check settings, not just fill in personal details, not broadcast where they are and then question whether they actually need to be plugged in with earphones or headsets. Talking to each other might help them to keep each other safe but they need to be encouraged to have adults to have safety conversations with too. It’s annoying some sites demand addresses, locations and phone numbers as though they were oblivious to common sense and online safety.  The UK child safety site Internet Matters had a high profile launch at the time it appeared and it’s a site which offers good advice. Pew Research Centre has current information about how parents monitor children’s online activity. There has been som rational and well thought out discussion about this on radio this week and that is a great way to keep those reminders in front of us as adults.