E-safety advice for parents 

We have provided some useful advice hyperlinks to give you more information about popular online spaces and who to contact if you have concerns about your child's use of technology.

www.childnet-int.org  - A non-profit making organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children's safe and positive use of the internet are addressed. Childnet International produce an online CD guide specifically for parents KnowITAll - www.childnet-int.org/kia/

www.thinkuknow.co.uk - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has set up its own edcational website which has been designed and written specifically for children, young people, teachers, parents and carers.

www.getsafeonline.org/  A beginners guide to using the Internet safety, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to ‘stay safe' on-line.

www.kidsmart.org.uk/  - Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to ‘stay safe' online.

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2011/10/advice-for-parents/  - Managing your Media - Good Ofcom online safety video and guide for parents/carers

www.bullying.co.uk  - One in five young people have experienced bullying by text message or via email. This web site gives advice for children and parents on bullying.

www.chatdanger.com/  - This website is about the potential dangers with interactive services online like chat, IM, online games, email and on mobiles. It provides information, advice, true stories and games. The resource page also contains a number of links to other useful websites.

http://parents.vodafone.com/ - Vodafone have developed this website in conjunction with mumsnet. It is very accessible and provides information and guidance to parents with understanding their child's digital world and get more involved. There is even an on-line test to see how much you know!

www.internetmatters.org  - Lots of guidance and articles for parents about keeping their children safe online

www.beatbullying.org  - Advice for parents and young people about bullying, both online and off Facebook Guidance

Many children have a Facebook account even though the T & C state the minimum age is 13 years. 

Instagram Guidance

Instagram is a social networking service based on the sharing of photographs or short videos, usually from mobile devices. It has become very popular with young people, who like to ‘follow' each other, build up numbers of ‘followers' and use the service for text chatting and messaging, as well as sharing pictures and videos.

Like most social networking services, Instagram is not intended for children under 13 and this is clearly stated in their Terms of Use.

By default, photographs and videos published by a user are public, and anyone can see them and follow the user. The user must actively choose to make their posts private in order to protect them. If selected, images and videos can also be added to a ‘photo map' which shows where each picture was taken, therefore potentially giving away the location of the user. A user's profile picture and ‘bio' is public, even if he/she chooses to make their posts private.