Using the internet is fun for most children aged 6-8 years. But your child can come across dangerous people or inappropriate content online. With some practical internet safety precautions, you can help your child identify and manage the risks.

Why internet safety matters

School-age children like going online to look at videos or play games. They might also be using the internet for schoolwork and homework. They can do this using computers, mobile phones, tablets, TVs and other devices.

Because school-age children are starting to be independent online and might go online unsupervised with older children, there are more internet safety risks for them than there are for younger children. There are particular risks if your child uses the internet to communicate with others – for example, on social media or within games.

When you take some practical internet safety precautions, you protect your child from risky or inappropriate content and activities. And your child gets to make the most of her online experience, with its potential for learning, exploring, being creative and connecting with others.

Internet safety risks for school-age children

There are three main kinds of internet risks for children.

Content risks

For school-age children these risks include things that they might find upsetting, disgusting or otherwise uncomfortable, if they come across them accidentally. This might include pornography, images of cruelty to animals, and real or simulated violence.

Contact risks

These risks include children coming into contact with people they don’t know or with adults posing as children online. For example, a child might be persuaded to meet someone he doesn’t know, share personal information with strangers, or provide contact details after clicking on pop-up messages.

Conduct risks

These risks include children acting in ways that might hurt others or being the victim of this kind of behaviour. For example, a child might destroy a game her friend or sibling has created. Another conduct risk is accidentally making in-app purchases.

Contract risks

These risks include children signing up to contracts, membership agreements, or terms and conditions that they aren’t aware of or don’t understand. For example, children might click a button that allows a business to send them inappropriate marketing messages or collect their personal or family data. Or children might use a toy, app or device with weak internet security, which leaves them open to identity theft or fraud.

Protecting your child from internet safety risks: tips

You can use a range of different strategies to help your school-age child stay safe while he’s using the internet.

Here are some ideas:

• Create a family media plan. It’s best to create your plan by talking with your child. Your plan could cover things like screen-free areas in your house, internet safety rules like not giving out personal information, and programmes and apps that are OK for your child to use.

• Use child-friendly search engines like Kiddle, or content providers like KIDOZ, Okto or YouTube Kids.

• Check that games, websites and TV programmes are appropriate for your child. You can do this by looking at reviews on Common Sense Media. 

• Use the internet with your child or make sure you’re close by and aware of what your child is doing while she’s online. This way you can act quickly if your child is concerned or upset by something she has seen.

• Check privacy settings and location services, use parental controls, use safe search settings on browsers, apps, search engines and YouTube, and find out how to make complaints about offensive online content. 

• Block in-app purchases and disable one-click payment options on your devices.

• Make sure older siblings follow your internet safety rules, like watching only age-appropriate programmes when they go online with younger children.

Trust between you and your child helps keep your child safe online. Calm, open conversations about internet use can help your child feel that you trust him to be responsible online. And if your child feels trusted, he’s more likely to talk with you about what he does online and tell you about online content and contacts that worry him.

It’s best to avoid using surveillance apps that let you secretly monitor your child’s online activity. Using these apps sends the message that you don’t trust your child. It’s better to talk openly about your own internet use and encourage your child to do the same.

If you do choose to monitor your child’s internet use while she’s online or by reviewing her browser history, it’s good to talk with your child about it first.

As your child gets older and more confident and starts using the internet independently, you’ll need to review your strategies.

Teaching safe and responsible online behaviour

You can help your child learn how to use the internet safely, responsibly and enjoyably. If you teach your child how to manage internet safety risks and worrying experiences for himself, he’ll build digital resilience. This is the ability to deal with and respond positively to any risks he encounters online.

You can do this by:

• going online with your child

• talking with your child about online content and behaviour

• being a good role model

• teaching your child to be careful with personal information

• teaching your child to avoid online purchases.

Going online with your child

Going online with your child gives you the opportunity to see the apps or games your child plays, or the videos she watches.

You can share your child’s experience while also checking that the content is appropriate. One way to do this is by asking questions that show interest in what your child is doing – for example, ‘That looks like an interesting game. Can you teach me to play too?’

You can also show your child sites that are fun, interesting or educational and bookmark them for later. You could help your child find information he needs for homework by using the right kind of words for his search. For example, if he’s searching for information on a school project about how people lived in the past, he can use a phrase like ‘life in Singapore in the 1960s’, rather than ‘past life’.

If you come across pop-up advertisements while you’re online together, it’s a good opportunity to talk with your child about not clicking them. You can explain that pop-up ads can lead to sites with unpleasant pictures or sites that want your personal or financial information.

Talking about online content

It’s a good idea to explain to your child that the internet has all sorts of content and that some of it isn’t for children. For example, you could tell your child that some sites, like YouTube, have adult content and children’s content.

You could explain that there are parental controls, safe browsing settings and internet filters set up on most devices to help protect children from inappropriate content. But these are not a guarantee and your child could still come across inappropriate content.

So it’s also a good idea to encourage your child to talk to you if she sees something that worries her – for example, you might say, ‘Sometimes people put horrible things on the internet. Some of it’s made up and some of it’s real. If you see anything that upsets you or makes you feel uncomfortable, let me know’.

If you name some things to look out for, it can help your child identify unsuitable material by himself. For example, ‘If you see a site with scary or rude pictures, swearing or angry words, let me know. It’s not a good site for you to look at’.

You could also explain that not all information on the internet is true or helpful – for example, some news is made up. Encouraging your child to question things she finds on the internet helps her develop the ability to tell whether a website has good-quality information. This is part of digital and media literacy.

Being a good role model

Your child learns from you. This means you can model safe and healthy internet use by using the internet in the way you want your child to use it – for example, by not having internet-connected devices in bedrooms or bathrooms, and by using technology for positive purposes like sending supportive messages to friends.

Taking care with privacy and personal information

It’s a good idea to make sure your child knows not to communicate online with people he doesn’t know in person. This is particularly important if your child is using in-game social networks.

Encourage your child to:

• tell you if someone she doesn’t know contacts her online

• not give out personal information. You could say, ‘Some people online are fakers and cheats. Never tell anyone your name, address, phone number or birthday online’

• not enter personal information on gaming sites or competitions. You could ask your child to check with you before filling out any online competitions or memberships

• ask you before she uses a new app, so you can show her how to check the privacy settings to keep her personal information safe. 

Avoiding online purchases

You can help stop any accidental in-app purchases by switching off in-app purchases and one-click payments on your devices.

It’s also a good idea for you and your child to agree on clear rules about not accepting in-app purchases. You might say, ‘Lots of people want our money, but it’s important that we don’t waste it on things we don’t need. If you want to buy a new game or something in a game, please ask me’.

Talking about appropriate online behaviour

Talking with your child about appropriate and inappropriate online behaviour will help your child learn how to stay safe. For example, you could tell your child not to do or say anything online that he wouldn’t do or say face to face with someone.

It’s OK if your rules are different from those of other families. If you’ve thought them through and you’re happy with the way they’re working, you’re helping to keep your child safe online.


© raisingchildren.net.au, translated and adapted with permission

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