Online Safety
As more of our lives move online, different opportunities and challenges present themselves. The web is a source of support, information, and learning. Unfortunately, it is also a place of grooming, exploitation, and bullying. Teachers, Social Workers, and other practitioners working with children and young people play a key role in supporting children and young people to learn about how to stay safe online.
Online Safety is not just an IT issue; it is about safeguarding children and young people (and adults) in the digital world as part of our safeguarding responsibilities.
The focus should be on building children and young people's resilience to online risk so they can be safe and confident online. This often requires practitioners, parents, and carers to build their own understanding of today's digital world.
‘Children have the right to enjoy childhood online, to access safe online spaces, and to benefit from all the opportunities that a connected world can bring to them, appropriate to their age and stage. As they grow older, it is crucial that they learn to balance the benefits offered by technology with a critical awareness of their own and other’s online behaviour and develop effective strategies for staying safe and making a positive contribution online.’ Education for a Connected World (Framework to equip children and young people for digital life.)
Find out more about Safer Internet Day (11th Feb 2025)
Twice per year, Internet Matters conduct a survey with 1000 9-17-year-olds and 2000 parents of children aged 3-17. The most recent data (Nov 2023) shows.
- Not all children report harmful online experiences Only a quarter of children who experienced an online harm said they reported it to the platform. Additionally, of the children who reported an issue, 25% felt unhappy or unsure about their feelings of the outcome. Where children did speak to someone about the harm, a parent/ guardian was the preferred choice for almost half (48%) of the children surveyed, 27% spoke with a friend and 9% spoke to a teacher.
- Parents underestimate how much time their child spends online and their exposure to harms Children reported spending 4.4 hours online per weekend day, and 3.4 hours per weekday. However, parents estimated 3.6 and 2.4 hours, respectively.
In relation to ‘harms,’ 21% of children report being contacted by strangers online (32% of 15-16-year-olds). However, only 8% of parents said their child experienced this.
What is online/ harm abuse?
The internet can be a great place for children and young people to play, learn and connect, but it can also put them at risk of online abuse.
Online harm/ abuse can occur through social media apps, messaging apps, virtual reality (Metaverse), email, online games, streaming sites and/ or chat rooms. Abuse may take the form of bullying, viewing sexually explicit or violence content, grooming, radicalisation, soliciting/ sharing images and/ or ‘sextortion.’
Online gaming may also lead children and young people to spend money on ‘loot boxes’ or other in game purchases. Perpetrators can use this as coercion to exploit children and young people into sharing personal details and/ or images of themselves. Research has shown loot boxes to be similar to gambling, raising concerns about a potential for problem behaviours in the future
How can I support Children & Young People to be safe online?
As parents/ carers or practitioners working with children and young people, there are ways you can support online safety.
- Talk to children and young people about online safety at the earliest opportunity and keep the conversations a regular part of your interactions; focus on ‘positives’ of their use, as well as messaging around being safe.
- Share the message that children and young people can talk to you about their worries and/ or if something has gone wrong.
- Find ways to stay up to date with the apps children and young people use (See resources below). Parents/ Carers may be invited to online safety sessions at their child’s school- these are useful ways to hear about current trends in online activity.
- Be interested in their online activity.
- Use filtering and privacy settings to block inappropriate sites and content. For parents/ carers, Internet Matters have Parental Control Guides for a range of devices/ apps. For practitioners, talk to your IT team about filtering and monitoring.
- Encourage children and young people to be responsible for their conduct online; explain that anything shared online, even in confidence, could end up being seen by others.
- Parents/ carers should consider the location of computers/ laptops in the family home and boundaries on mobile phone use; it can be difficult to monitor activity if devices are in their bedroom.
Information for Parents/ Carers:
Internet Matters is a useful website for children/ young people, their parents/ carers and those who work with them to learn more about supporting children and young people to be safe in online spaces. The search function can be used to look up popular apps, names of online challenges and/ or specific concerns you may have.
Common Sense Media also has a range of guides for popular apps and offers suggested age ratings and information on a range of media content including YouTube Channels, films, tv, podcasts and games.
NSPCC offer tips on talking to children and young people about online safety, including tips for the first conversations with younger children.
Young Gamers offer advice to parents/ carers around gaming and gambling, including free awareness raising workshops.
UK Safer Internet Centre offer guides for parents/ carers
If you have concerns about your child's safety online, you could also talk to your child's education or early years setting. Many will run annual online safety awareness sessions for parents/ carers.
Information for Practitioners working with Children & Young People:
We live in an age where children and young people live their lives through social media, so it is important that they are educated and supported to stay safe using social media, sites, and apps.
- Pan Beds Procedures include a chapter on eSafety.
- Free eSafety eLearning is available via Safeguarding Bedfordshire Training
- Education for a Connected World- A framework to equip children and young people for digital life.
- Common Sense Media Information has a range of guides for popular apps and offers suggested age ratings and information on a range of media content including YouTube Channels, films, tv, podcasts and games.
- NSPCC offer a wide range of safeguarding information including online safety, sharing nudes/ sexting and online pornography
- Report Remove is part of Childline and helps young people under 18 in the UK to confidentially report sexual images and videos of themselves and remove them from the internet.
- UK Safer Internet Centre offer guides for parents/ carers
- Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) delivers a multi-agency service dedicated to tackling the exploitation of children. You can report to CEOP if you are concerned that a child is being sexually abused or groomed online. This might be from someone they know or someone they have only ever met online. We are here to help and advise you and to make the child safe.
- Childnet is a UK based charity who empower children, young people and those who support them. Its mission is to help make the Internet a great and safe place for children.
- Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust provide free training and resources for teachers, youth workers, practitioners, universities, faith leaders and health practitioners as well as parents/ carers.
- CEOP Education (previously ThinkUKnow) aims to help protect children and young people from online child sexual abuse through education programmes, training, resources, and information to practitioners working with children, young people, and their families.
- Simplified Social Media Terms & Conditions The Children’s Commissioner has produced a range of simplified T&Cs for popular apps used by children and young people.
- Sexual Communication with a child under the age of 16 is a criminal offence. Guidance (April 2017). The Lucy Faithfull Foundation‘Stop it Now!’ campaign aims to deter people from viewing child abuse images online. Stop it Now has resources, information, and support both practitioners working in this area, and to help users of online abuse images to change their behaviour.