This list of Top 10 E-safety tips for parents (and teachers) was originally put together by Marc Shoffren of Clore Shalom school and updated by us both for a session we did together on Limmud conference. I think it’s a great resource as it’s really simple and each point has a web resource. It also treats the internet as a learning opportunity to be embraced rather than a danger to avoided. If you find it useful let us know.
You can download the document here to print or edit Limmud e-safety Top Ten Tips for Parents
Top Ten e-safety Tips for Parents
- Discover the internet together: www.getsafeonline.org contains advice about firewalls, spyware and antivirus protection as well as how to protect your child.
- Agree a framework for sensible internet use at home: www.childnet-int.org has some good suggestions for this.
- Discuss disclosing personal information: www.chatdanger.com is a site for teenagers that gives advice on how to stay safe while chatting online.
- Explore the issues involved in meeting an e-pal face to face: www.thinkuknow.co.uk has advice for children about this.
- Teach critical questioning skills when looking at websites: http://web.archive.org/web/20080430094706/www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm has a useful checklist to assess whether a website is likely to be credible. QUICK stands for the Quality Information Checklist. (nb the link takes you to an archive of the site which is otherwise not available)
- Don’t be too critical of your child’s exploration: It is natural for children to be curious about off-limits material. If they come across inappropriate material use this as an opening to discuss the content with them, and perhaps make rules for this kind of activity. Encourage your children to use child appropriate search engines, such as www.askkids.com.
- Report illegal material: www.ceop.gov.uk is the website of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre, a police agency tackling child abuse on the internet. It includes a unique facility that enables parents and young people to make reports of actual or attempted abuse on line.
- Encourage good netiquette: www.transl8it.com is a fun website which translates some of the language used in chatrooms, instant messaging and texting into normal English.
- Know your child’s net use: Let your child show you which websites that they like visiting and what it is that they do there. Try some of the sites yourself to see what they are experiencing. To explore with them try http://kidsmart.org.uk/
- Remember the positives: Embrace the internet, it’s a great thing and it’s here to stay. To remind yourself of some of the positives watch the Did You Know presentation, available at http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/
3 Simple Rules for Kids:
- Stick with your friends. Have your teens limit their privacy settings to Only Friends. That’ll restrict who sees your kids’ information, including pictures, videos, and applications they use.
- Keep private information private. When filling out their bios, teens can leave fields blank. There is no need for your teens to post their phone numbers or addresses. These features are optional and aren’t required to create a Facebook account.
- Don’t let your information get away from you. If your teens haven’t restricted who can share their information, their personal data can end up in the hands of marketers. Also, advise your teens to be on the lookout for personal information requests — like their birthday or music playlist — from third parties. And make sure your teens uncheck the public search results box so people can’t find their Facebook page through a Google search.
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