There are no I.T professionals amongst the *Mums World* Admin Team. Information has been collated from reputable websites which will be listed at the end of the topic. Becks and Lilly
Keeping up with and supervising children’s online activity can be challenging, especially when they have their own computers, Smartphone’s, tablets and games consoles ... or they are in other people’s homes. Understand the risks yourself and plan ahead before allowing children access to the internet.
The Risk
Inappropriate contact: from people who may wish to abuse, exploit or bully them.
Inappropriate conduct: because of their own and others’ online behaviour, such as the personal information they make public. They may also become either targets or perpetrators of cyberbullying.
Inappropriate content: being able to access sexually explicit, racist, violent, extremist or other harmful material.
Commercialism: directing aggressive advertising and marketing material at children.
Children gaining access to your own personal information stored on your computer.
Children enabling viruses and spyware by careless or misinformed use of your computer.
There are several ways to safeguard children. Undoubtedly the most effective is to educate them from an early age about the risks they may encounter when online ... what these risks are, how to spot them and what action to take. There are a number of online age-appropriate educational resources available to parents/guardians and teachers, and children themselves, covering every aspect of online safety for children.
You should also take the following measures. Remember that these factors will change as children grow up and should be reconsidered regularly.
Set ground rules about use of the internet, email and texts. They should learn to take responsibility for their own actions and develop their own judgement.
Make children aware that online contacts may not be who they say they are.
Children must keep personal details private.
Ensure that they use a family email address when filling in online forms.
They must never meet unsupervised with anyone they have contacted via the internet.
Get children to report concerns about conversations, messages and behaviours to you or another known and trusted adult. Encourage them to share their internet experience with you and make it a shared family experience.
Get children to report bullying online, by text or phone immediately to you.
Use the parental control settings on your browser, search engine and internet security package.
Alternatively, consider buying specialist parental control software.
Block pop-ups and spam emails.
Consider enabling online access from only a family computer located in a shared room.
Always sit with younger children when they are online.
Consider choosing a child-friendly home page in your browser settings.
Learn the language of chatrooms and log on yourself so you know how it works.
Consider setting up a family e-mail account which can be used specifically to register for websites, competitions etc.
Tell your children not to illegally copy copyrighted content such as music, films or software.
Ensure that your children do not have access to your logon account so that they cannot access, alter or delete your files.
Take care to limit children's access to credit card and bank information. Similarly, ensure they cannot gain access to an online shop or other website where your details are stored.
Set limits on when they can use the computer, and for how long.
Parental controls are designed to help protect children from inappropriate content they may come across online. These controls can be used to limit access to only age appropriate content, to set usage times and to monitor activity
It’s worth being aware that no parental controls or filtering options are 100% fool proof. As well as setting up parental controls it’s important to educate your children about the potential risks online, and establish rules concerning the sites that are suitable, or inappropriate, to visit. It's important that you involve yourself in their online world; as a starting point you could ask them what their favourite websites are and why they like them.
Where should I begin?
Once you have bought a new device for your child, have a look at the manual that came with it as these normally contain some information and a step by step guide on how to install parental controls. You could also type the name of the device plus parental controls into a search engine eg. ‘Nintendo DSi + parental controls’. This can help you to find how-to guides and useful video tutorials.
Portable devices
Children are accessing the internet on a range of different devices. Gone are the days where the only way to surf the web was on a desktop computer in your home. You can now access the internet wherever and whenever you want. Your child may be using portable devices such as smartphones, laptops, gaming devices (eg Nintendo DSi), media players (eg iPod Touch) and tablets (eg iPad). It can really help to be informed about how to install parental controls onto each device.
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Should my child have an email account?
Your child may ask to have their own email account. You need to think about whether they are old enough and mature enough to have an account that will provide them with some independence online, such as giving them the ability to register with websites.
If your child is setting up an account, here are some simple steps you can take to help them use it safely and securely.
Set up the account with them – this will give you a good idea of what personal information has been asked for and the functionality of the account.
Check moderation possibilities – popular services such as Hotmail have parental controls to assist you with the moderation of the account. Some allow you to have a family account or moderation rights. This way you can see the emails received and the sites your child is registering on too. If this is not possible, you can share the password to the account, especially for younger age groups; this way you can moderate if you feel necessary.
Ask your child to only email people they know and trust in the real world.
Ask them to never click on emails from people they don’t know or links they don’t recognise, as they could contain a virus which will harm the computer, or take them to a site which is inappropriate.
Encourage them to tell you if they see anything that upsets them online, because you can help them.
How can this help me?
Every parental control package is different, but most provide services such as:
Filtering – content to restrict access to particular sites, such as pornographic websites.
Time limits – restrict the amount of time your child can be online, or set periods of time where your child can access certain sites.
Monitoring – where you are informed of certain sites that your child is attempting to gain access to.
Reporting – where you are provided with information about what sites your child has used.
Where do I get them?
There are three main levels for applying parental controls:
Internet Service Providers (ISP’s). These are the organisations that pipe the internet to your home (like Virgin Media, Talk Talk, Sky and BT). All of the major ISP’s provide parental control packages. These can allow you to apply controls across all of the devices that access the internet through your home connection – such as laptops or games consoles.
Devices that connect to the internet. Most computers, mobiles and games consoles now come with parental controls that can be applied. For example, within Windows and the Mac operating systems, there are parental controls that can be set for individual devices.
Software. There are a wide range of packages available to buy or sometimes download for free – always look for reputable companies and check out reviews online.
Does this make my child safe?
Parental controls will never make the internet 100% ‘safe’. They should not be used as a substitute for communicating safety messages to your child. Make sure that you talk to your child about their behaviour online and remember, your home is not the only place they will be accessing the internet! Never ask your children to set these settings, if you are not confident in putting these in place ask a family friend or the shop assistant to help.
The following information will explain the free parental controls from BT, Virgin, Sky and Talk Talk.
BT
BT‘s Security package is called BT Family Protection. This lets you choose the right level of protection for each child on up to three computers in your home. With this service you can:
Block websites – stop your kids from seeing inappropriate content
Set time limits – manage how long your children spend online
Get instant alerts – get email or text alerts when your kids try to view blocked sites or post confidential information
Social networking tools – control the use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter and set up text alerts if personal information is posted
YouTube filtering – a unique technology to prevent exposure to unsuitable content
Usage reports – review your children's online activity from anywhere in the world
As well as parental controls, you also get:
Advanced spam filtering – with image blocking to protect children from offensive content
BT Cleanfeed – blocks sites classified as illegal by the Internet Watch Foundation
Access to our internet abuse prevention team – for children or parents to report any concerns
A user guide for the BT Family Protection service is available and videos on the service are also provided.
Talk Talk
Talk Talk’s Internet security service is called HomeSafe. Built into the broadband network itself, HomeSafe is designed to help you block every device in your home from websites you've defined as unsuitable for your home. Parents also have the option to control the after school homework routine specifically. It's been developed in partnership with their panel of parents and online safety experts.
A guide to setting up HomeSafe is available as are videos for this service.
Virgin Media
Parental Controls is part of Virgin Media Security and is available for free to all Virgin Media broadband customers. With Virgin Media Security’s Parental Control you can:
Screen out offensive material
Filter sites by pre-defined age categories
Add exceptions or block specific sites
Control access to specific content types like chat or social networking
Set an access-schedule for individual users
See a history of sites viewed, including those that were blocked
Further information on this service and a guide on how to set up parental controls is available.
Plusnet
Plusnet offer Plusnet Protect Internet security. With this service, either offered free or for a small charge dependent on your Broadband package, parents and carers are able to set safe boundaries for children with parental controls.
Advice on how to set these controls is available.
Sky
Sky offer McAfee Internet Security suit, available free or for a small monthly charge dependent on your Broadband package. Parental Controls are included in this package, however all Sky Broadband customers can get McAfee Parental Controls on their own as a separate download, free and for up to three PC’s.
McAfee’s Parental Controls help control when your children can be online, monitor/control what websites they can visit, and keep an eye on their online activities.
Many thanks to the following sites where we gathered this information:
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Primary/Tools/Parental-controls/
http://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/hot-topics/parental-controls
http://www.getsafeonline.org/safeguarding-children/safeguarding-children/
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