Last week, the government announced plans for children aged 11 upwards to be taught about sexual consent as part of PSHE in schools.
Although we value the opportunities and knowledge that technology provides to our children and young people there can also be dangers in sharing information too.
The NSPCC have also recently created a campaign to highlight the risks of children sharing too much information on social networks.
The Share Aware campaign follows new guidelines produced by the NSPCC to help inform parents about the potential risks and benefits of different social networking sites used by children.
7 in 10 12-15 year olds who go online have a social network profile
1 in 5 8-11 year olds who go online have a social network profile
1 in 20 year olds who go online have a social network profile
*Source NSPCC
More information can be found here: www.nspcc.org.uk/shareaware. Parents can access tips, guide about the risks of different social networking sites used by children and information on where to go to for help if you’re worried.
Protecting children online
Here are some tips recommended for parents to keep children safe online.
- Is the social networking site anonymous, or do users have to verify who they are, and how?
- Can your child receive messages from strangers or send messages to strangers, or is it a closed group?
- Google search - does the app have known security or privacy concerns?
- Check what policies the site has in place for monitoring abusive behaviour and the controls it puts in place to prevent or stop it.
- Teach your child about the implications of sexting, sending pictures of themselves, over-sharing personal information, and bullying, self-bullying and being bullied online