PARENTS & CHILDREN TOGETHER
INTERNET SAFETY
Using computers and the internet
Whether doing research for school projects and
homework, chatting with friends or playing games, your
child is likely to spend ever more time on the computer as
they get older.
While they may understand computer programs, surfing
the internet, chat rooms and multi-player games better
than you do, they still need your guidance.
The articles and links in these documents can help you to
direct them towards helpful resources, while helping you
steer them clear of the dangers which exist.
Why Work Together?
¾ It’s great fun. There are so many fun things to do
together, you’d spend a lifetime sharing them all.
¾ You can improve together. Often, it’s the children
who end up teaching the adults.
¾ You get to spend some quality time together.
¾ As a parent or carer, you can make sure your child is
safe when enjoying time on the internet and set a
good example on how to use it safely and sensibly.
WHAT ARE THE DANGERS ?
1. Too Much Time Online
You may not realise it, but you and your child could be
spending too much time on the internet.
It is important to remember that the internet is not a
substitute for anything else. Your interests should never
be sacrificed to spend extra time surfing the internet.
It is recommended that children should take a break every
20 minutes. This is only a guideline, but the important
thing to remember is to set age-appropriate time limits
on use.
2. PHYSICAL EFFECTS
Using a computer for a long time can be hard on anyone
physically, so here are some tips to avoid straining
muscles and eyes:
¾ If using the internet for longer than usual, stretch
your muscles after a while, especially your arms
¾ Look away from the screen regularly to ensure that
your eyes focus on different things
¾ Maintain good posture – sit straight, face forward,
and not sideways
¾ Make sure the chair is at the right height for the
users – arms should be horizontal, top of the screen
at eye level
¾ Beware of stray leads that could trip someone and
make sure that children do not touch these at all
3. SPAM & VIRUSES
Spam is another word for unwanted adverts, which can
advertise anything. Often though, they advertise things
which are not suitable for children. Here are some tips:
¾ Never give your personal email address out on the
net. You’re asking for it to be passed on or sold on to
people who flood the net with spam or viruses
(harmful programs which can help others to cheat
you or steal information, or just simply break your
computer)
¾ Check your provider’s privacy policy to make sure
your address will be kept safe
¾ A really good idea is to make sure that your provider
of the internet (ISP for short) has an anti-spam filter
fitted already. If not, you can download or purchase
software to help with this
¾ Never open attachments from unknown senders,
especially if they contain jumbled letters and
numbers in any of the message fields. If they are
genuine, they will contact you again.
¾ NEVER, EVER, allow anyone to give personal
information to anyone, especially passwords. Your
bank or building society should never ask for this
information via email, so if they do, contact your
bank to check this out. It will possibly be someone
committing identity theft
¾ Never respond to spam, even to unsubscribe –
it only lets people know that the address is still
in use.
Some useful links for web safety are listed below.
http://www.getsafeonline.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/
http://www.besafeonline.org/English/safer_use_of_servic
es_on_the_internet.htm
http://www.getnetwise.org/
This document has been compiled from information from
all of these sites.
4. ONLINE BULLYING
maybe one for later in life, when children are using the
internet for things like chat rooms and discussion forums.
Playground bullying is obviously a very serious problem,
however this type of bullying is just as unbearable. If you
are told that this is the case, then you should:
¾ Listen, react with safety, and of course don’t tell
them to ignore it
¾ Never respond to any bullying emails
¾ Encourage your children to leave chat rooms or areas
where this is happening. Report the offender to the
website, and also to the police if you feel that it is
more than a one-off incident. Most sites where chat
is available have moderators who can ban these
people from using the sites
5. Unsuitable Images For Children
Unfortunately, spam and unwanted programs exist that
make adverts and pictures pop up randomly if email
addresses and personal computer information gets into
the wrong hands. Some tips to avoid your child becoming
exposed to this material are listed below:
¾ Be open about what may be on there (using age
appropriate language) so that they feel they can
inform you if they see anything. This is of course up
to you, and you may decide not to adopt this course
of action. You know your children better than us.
¾ Search for appropriate sites for you and your children
together
¾ Check which controls exist on your provider’s
website. You may have very good filters in place
already. If not, are you using the right provider?
¾ Try to use child-friendly search engines like
yahooligans or askjeeves.
6. SHOPPING
Shopping on the internet is becoming very popular, with a
huge amount of companies offering discounts for cutting
out the middle man. Here are some tips to help you avoid
receiving huge bills due to lack of care and attention to
the dangers of available shopping and auction sites:
¾ Be sensible – don’t hand over your debit or credit
card details
¾ If using the internet, stick to brands you can trust
and that you know. Not all sites are secure. A good
sign that sites are secure is the little padlock symbol
at the bottom right of the screen, and if it says
htpps:\, the s stands for secure.
¾ Auction sites are popular and addictive. Do not allow
your children to bid on anything on your behalf, or
allow then access to set up their own user accounts.
You could look for the names of these sites and add
them to your blocked sites list when the children use
the computer
¾ Use your filter settings to bar any gambling sites.
Use key words linked to gambling such as casino,
roulette, poker etc
7. ADULTS WHO ABUSE CHILDREN (PAEDOPHILES)
Remember, nobody knows what a paedophile looks like.
When BT introduced software to block access by its users
to paedophile sites, it intercepted 250,000 attempts in
three weeks. This is a frightening statistic, and all parents
and carers should be aware that this danger exists.
Your main worry should be chat rooms, where people
masquerade as other children to encourage children to
meet and send images of them. After using private
chatting (whispering) in the chat rooms, often pressure is
put on children to develop the online relationship to things
like texting or the telephone. This is called grooming and
is punishable by law.
This is worrying to read, but it does not mean that the
internet is flooded with these people. You do, however,
need to be sensible to be safe:
¾ Never allow your child to give out information to
others which will allow people they don’t know to
contact them offline.
¾ If they have given their email address to a stranger,
don’t be too hard on them or they will never tell you
if they do it again. Do, however, change the email
addresses you use as a precaution. Monitor any
messages they get.
¾ Restrict online activity to moderated chat rooms
¾ It might be worth you signing up to a chat room
yourself to learn the language of these chat rooms.
Remember though, don’t get carried away and the
same rules apply to you!
¾ Chat room friends are still strangers. If a meeting
has been arranged, go too. You need to know that
people are who they say they are. Better still,
discourage your child from doing this altogether.
¾ Let your child know that they can tell you if any chat
makes them feel uncomfortable.
¾ Any problems, contact the ISP and moderator of the
chat room
¾ If any serious doubts about a person’s identity
become apparent, do not hesitate to call the police
To summarise, here are 10 TOP TIPS to help you be safe:
1. Consider using internet filtering software, walled gardens and
child-friendly search engines. Use your browser's controls as
some offer differing degrees of security for each family
member.
2. Check out what child protection services your Internet
Service Provider (ISP) offers - do they filter for spam, for
instance? If not, ask them why.
3. Keep the computer in a communal area of the house, where
it's easier to monitor what your children are viewing.
4. Tell children not to give out their personal details. If they
want to subscribe to any services online, make up a family
email address to receive the mail.
5. Children love to chat, but make sure they only use moderated
chat rooms and encourage them to introduce you to their
online friends.
6. Encourage your children to tell you if they feel uncomfortable,
upset or threatened by anything they see online.
7. Involve your children in writing your own family code of
acceptable internet use. Remember that what's acceptable for
a teenager isn't necessarily OK for a primary school-aged
child, so get their input.
8. Computer kit is expensive so bear in mind that a child with a
laptop may be vulnerable when carrying it to and from
school.
9. The web's a great resource for homework, but remember to
use more than one site in research to get broad, balanced
information and always reference your research sources.
10. Surf together. Go online with your children and become part
of their online life. The key to safe surfing is communication.
Which Websites Should I Use For Fun?
Here are some websites which are recommended
Websites For Pre-School Children
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/preschool/
BBC The main CBB
page
A page of links
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/barnabybear/
Barnaby Bear
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/
www.swgfl.org.uk/belinda/
http://fc.marjon.ac.uk/barnabybear/
SWGfL’s Barnaby &
Belinda
Marjon’s Barnaby
Bear site
http://www.barnabybear.net/
More Barnaby Bear
www.bbc.co.uk/education/teletubbies/
Teletubbies
www.bbc.co.uk/education/tweenies/
Tweenies
www.bbc.co.uk/education/numbertime/
Number Time
www.boohbah.tv/
www.miffy.com
Little Animals
Activity Centre
ITV Children’s ITV
main page
Colourful fun
Dick Bruna’s Miffy
www.granadakids.com/engiebenjy/
Engie Benjy
www.pocoyo.com
www.thomasandfriends.com/uk/
Pocoyo
Thomas and Friends
www.tractortom.com
Tractor Tom
www.channel4.com/hoobs
www.dottieandbuzz.co.uk/
www.five.tv/programmes/milkshake/games/mrcre
ate/
Four The Hoobs
Dottie and Buzz
Five Children’s
main page
Make a Mr Man or
Miss
www.abc.net.au/countusin/default.htm
Number games
www.little-g.com/shockwave/loading.html
various
www.kidspsych.org/index1.html
www.funwithspot.com
www.themouseclub.co.uk/
Oochy and Oochina
Spot the Dog
The Mouse Club
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/
www.citv.co.uk/page.asp?partid=11
www.five.tv/programmes/milkshake/
www.kids-space.org/HPT/
www.treehousetv.com/kids/index.asp
From Kent
Naturegrid
Hop Pop Town - music
American site
www.pingu.net/uk/intro.html
Pingu’s activities
http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/earlyyears/in
dex.html
Lovely stories
website
http://www.uptoten.com/
Counting for little
ones
A couple of demos
www.sebastianswan.org.uk
www.percyonline.co.uk/demos.php
Websites For Key Stage 1 Children
http://www.miffy.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/5_9/in
dex.shtml?wwww
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/index
_flash.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/podsmission/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/snapdragon/yesflash
/intro.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/barnabybear/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/games/
http://www.kids-space.org/HPT/
Fun with the famous
rabbit
Great website for
literacy and
numeracy support.
Really good fun
Fun for all ages in
literacy and maths
Reading fun with
the famous
characters from the
reading books
Lots of learning
here in different
ways
Science the fun way
– lots of exciting
information and
clips to help your
children
Help pod on his
quest for
information. Great
sciencs site
Here’s one with a
difference. Learn
welsh the fun way!
Join old favourite
Barnaby Bear on his
travels. Help him
pack first though!
Use the spinner to
help you find a
learning game.
Excellent format
here
Musical fun with the
cuddly animals
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/menu.shtml
http://play.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/
Little animals
activity centre.
Lovely fun in all
areas for you both
to share
If you like lego,
then check out
these games and
activities. Try
junkbot!
No need to say
more. You’ll be
having fun for
hours.
Websites For Key Stage 2 Children
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryfrench/ind
ex_flash.shtml
Help your child to
learn French the
fun way
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish/
Learn Spanish
together with
games and fun
exercises
http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllus Check out these fun
ions/illusions.htm
optical illusions
together
http://www.citv.co.uk/page.asp?partid=8
Fun with Horrid
Henry and friends
here
http://www.learn4good.com/kids/games.htm
Lots of games here
and loads more
besides. Learning
galore
http://www.magickeys.com/books/
Lots of stories to
share together.
Lovely site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/4_ Explore music with
11/music/mm/
Robbie and Curly
http://kids.mysterynet.com//
Like mysteries?
solve these
together
http://cp.c-ij.com/english/
Make a mountain of
fun things together
with this crafty
website.
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagena Like pets? Look no
me=RSPCA/RSPCARedirect&pg=petcare
further. Your pet
will love you for it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/digger/
Maths, English and
science fun
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english Improve your
/
learning together
with these fun size
learning activities
http://www.show.me.uk/
http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/
Museum fun. Find
out more!
Know about birds?
You will now!
This is obviously the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole
world to explore, but the main thing to remember is to do
so safely. As you can see, there’s a website for almost
every interest, but by sticking to providers that you know
you can trust, you can enjoy learning and researching and
playing almost completely without risk.