ADVICE & GUIDANCE

Young People Online

At the SafeToNet Foundation we have an incredible Youth Advisory Board helping us to understand children and young people’s digital lives.  They felt that parents don’t understand what they do online, why they spend so much time on their devises and why they are so important.  They suggested that we allow young people to educate

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Staying safe on Social Media

The main purpose of using social media is to stay connected with friends and have fun. However, there are many that have other, more malicious intentions. Don’t let these users ruin your experience – keep your profiles secure.   Set your profiles to “Private”You don’t want the whole world to see everything that you post

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How to adapt to your child growing up

Your once chatty teen has suddenly clammed up. No parents enjoy getting the “door shut and silent” treatment from their child, especially when you feel like you’ve previously enjoyed a close relationship and nothing has changed from your perspective.   The first thing to do is to take a breath and understand that pulling away

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What to do if you suspect your child might be suicidal

If you even suspect this might be the case, you need to address the issue immediately. But calmly. It’s important that you talk about your concerns in a calm, non-accusatory manner. Sometimes when parents are very worried, they end up saying, ‘Don’t think this way,’ or, ‘You shouldn’t feel that way,’ and they come across not as

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What is Self Harm?

There are few things more disturbing for parents and carers than finding out that their child is intentionally hurting themselves. Unfortunately, it’s very common, especially among girls and as many as a quarter of all teenagers do it. The most common form of self-harm is cutting or scratching the skin with anything that can draw

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Digital Self Harm

[Source: Internet Matters] Since children virtually live online, we are beginning to see a worrying trend known as “digital self-harm”.  It has all the hallmarks of self-harm in that the person who enacts it is in a state of high emotion distress and inner turmoil, feeling isolated, powerless and out of control. But rather than

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How can I understand my child’s digital world?

Really understanding a child’s digital world is often a concept that is overlooked in the digital parenting world. Whether we refer to them as “digital natives” or “Generation Z” or “Gen Z”, they communicate and exist in a digital environment that most parents are not familiar with and do not understand.   There is no

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When is it right to confiscate a child’s device?

Your child’s safety is always the priority. As a parent if you feel it is necessary to take their device away from them it is down to you and should be in response to a high-risk situation. You may have to grapple the phone off your child and that is not a good experience for either

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Digital Addiction

[source www.parentingandyou.co.uk] There are currently no medical or government guidelines on screen time in the UK, although the government has recently retreated from 2008 guidance that children should be exposed to technology from a very young age. Advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is that children should have TV- free

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Should there be screen limits?

How much screen time is too much screen time? There is no settled view on this. More research is needed but, in part, it seems pretty clear the answer will depend on what is on the screen. The main concerns arise in relation to the extent of non-educational usage, so a good place to start

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How early should I get my child a smartphone?

The average age that children get their first mobile phone is 10.3 years old (according to Techcrunch). Parents often give their children smartphones so they can contact them in case of emergency e.g. once they start at secondary school. Ironically the smartphone exposes them to on-line risks. The point in time of giving a child a smartphone

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Looking at issues through the eyes of the child

Our research at the SafeToNet Foundation has shown us that what works best for parents is to try to see on-line issues through the eyes of their child. Like it or not our children rely on communicating, learning and consuming content on-line. The majority are incredibly tech savvie and understand better than their parents the

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Peer-to-Peer Advice

Our research shows that when young people have an issue, they turn first to those they can trust  and most often this is their friends or peers. Children and young people are often the witnesses to cyber-bullying, the distribution of another child’s private nude image, the public humiliation of another child, situations of grooming, and

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Should parents use Parental Controls?

“Parental Controls” is a terrible term. Children and young people do not want to be “controlled” nor do parents want to control them…they simply want to ensure that their children are safeguarded. Very young people will need a more pro-active approach until they gain maturity and understanding, but children aged 11 and above often quickly become

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What are the Risks of Dating Apps?

The Telegraph reported recently that thousands of teenagers including many aged 15 or under are using “adult” dating app Tinder every day.Some 1% of parents even helped set their children up with accounts, prompting fears that they are unwittingly putting them at risk.   The survey also found that more than a third of children

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What are Ghost Accounts?

Ghost accounts are also referred to as ghost followers or lurkers. They are users on social media platforms who remain inactive or do not engage in activity. They register on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. These users follow active members, but do not partake in liking, commenting, messaging and posting. These account may be

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Glossary of Terms for Parents

Pfting – something of value   Peng – a positive word to describe something very nice   Sket – a slut   Bait– deliberately annoy or taunt someone   Peeps – to see something/someone   POS – Parent On Shoulder   999 – parent in room   Baye – closest person – lover, boyfriend, girlfriend,

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Predatory Risks and Grooming

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if someone is a predator online. In the USA the FBI and the United Nations found that there are at least 750,000 predators lurking online at any given moment. Read more to find out what signs to look for if you think you are talking to an online

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Gaming

Gaming risks tend to arise from a large number of people playing, the minimal restrictions involved, and the fact that users are not face-to-face. Due to the lack of transparency, your child cannot be sure who they are playing against, chatting to, and what their motives are. Children are also at risk of playing games

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Trolling

Definition: An Internet Troll An Internet troll is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people. They do this by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off topic messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response, or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion, often

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Sexting

DEFINITION Sexting is where people exchange messages, images or videos of a sexual nature through digital platforms. It is a form of communication that can occur between friends, partners, and people you have met online. It refers explicitly to self-generated content and usually involves sexually explicit messages consisting of naked pictures, underwear pictures, and erotic

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Cyberbullying

Definition Cyberbullying is any bullying behaviour that takes place virtually. It can be harassment or humiliation over text, social media or any type of technology from one person to another. It can come in multiple forms; verbal, emotional, and may lead to physical. A couple of examples would be: creating a fake account to be

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