Safer Internet Day 2012 is a global initiative taking place on Tuesday 7th February to promote safer internet usage. This is a big concern for many parents across Ireland as children are now on computers every day, whether it’s for school, to play games or even to socialise.
This year, Safer Internet Day, which is organised in Ireland by the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) is encouraging families to ‘discover the digital world together…safely!’.
For tips and hints on how to do this as well as some fun activities you can do together online, check out www.Webwise.ie and www.facebook.com/webwise.
To celebrate Safer Internet Day, we have 10 Top Tips to ensure your child is using the internet safely:
- Discover the internet together: Be the one to introduce the internet to your child. This will make it easier to share both positive and negative experiences in the future. Decide what content you might want to block from your children by using parental controls.
- Agree with your child on rules for internet use: Set ground rules for your children about how you expect them to behave online. Reach an agreement with them on how much time they should spend online and what sites and activities are ok.
- Encourage your child to protect their reputation: They should be selective about what personal information and photos they post online. Once material is online, it can be subject to all kinds of unauthorised use.
- Talk about the risks associated with meeting online friends: While many young people now make friends online, they should only physically meet strangers in the company of an adult or others they trust.
- Use parental controls: Find you how to set safe search filters and ensure this is locked to the PC your child uses.
- Don’t be too critical towards your child’s exploration of the internet: It is not always their fault if they come across something inappropriate on the net.
- Games consoles are online too: All games consoles come with parental controls and most ask you if you would like to set them up from the outset. This allows you to block a game based on age ratings, disable or restrict web access and disable voice chat.
- Encourage respect for others: Just as you would teach your children to respect others in person, you should teach them to behave in the same way when on the internet.
- Know your child’s internet use: To be able to guide your child’s internet use, whether it’s on their mobile phone or PC, it is important to understand how your child uses the internet and know what they like to do online.
- Remember that the positive aspects of the internet out-weight the negative: The internet is an excellent educational and recreational resource for children. Encourage your child to be ‘web-wise’ and to explore the internet to its full potential.
