We think all parents (not just of girls) may want to consider the message of this video. What might your children want to tell you but not know how? More Childnet for parents here.

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Campaign from the Internet Watch Foundation raising awareness of how 11-13 year old girls are most at risk of being tricked or forced into taking nude images in their own bedrooms. Parent site & Girls site

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'AI Initiative' - Understanding the Impact of AI on Our Kids from Common Sense Media explores the key AI tools and implications

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The lack of checks on tutors and serious cases in the news remind us that you should follow this guidance to stay safe when hiring a tutor.

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Why not think use this simple top tips poster to think about easy ways to keep your children safe online.

Apple, Android and Microsoft have tools to help you control what younger children can use and how long for. Click the images below for details. Once they are older and have your trust, the same tools can help avoid arguments and help them learn to self-regulate (how long have they really been on Instagram today? Have they put down the phone at all in the last week?).

Apple Screen Time

Great for both parental controls and teen self-regulation

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Google Family Link

Digital Wellbeing is the next step for the older ones after Family Link

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Microsoft Family Safety

There are no self-regulation features for older teens, but Family Safety is great for the younger ones.

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What about the rest? 

Internet Matters is an amazing one-stop shop for easy-to-understand, step-by-step parent guides to the parental controls on an array of?

Family options for YouTube 

From YouTube Kids for the youngest children, to the supervised options for pre-teens, explore the options here.

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Monitoring

There are some monitoring tools, which send parents text and pictures their children and young people send or receive, but here are two less intrusive ones which offer support to the young person or only tell parents about general risk levels, trends and worrying changes. 

BBC Own It app

No alerts to parents but instant support to the young person if they send or receive something worrying

Safe To Net app

This app works in the same way and also sends a general risk score to parents so they know when a conversation is needed (but it is not intrusive so no screenshots or text)

 

What even is Fortnite (or Roblox...or Minecraft...)? 

1. The best way to find out is to get your child to show you how any app or game works, what happens and if it's appropriate. It could be quick, or you might even find you enjoy playing or watching together!

2. Common Sense Media has thousands of expert reviews of apps, games and even films and what parents and children think about them. Take a look ...and this year, look at their review of the main generative-AI tools too.

It can be hard to talk to children and especially teens about their online lives, but it's so important. This is why:

 

 

So what can you do? We recommend a family agreement (example below) to make clear what is allowed...or not, how much time you can spend on devices, and ground rules like no phones at the table or in the bedroom at night-time. Watch the video with Will Ferrell to see why parents need to take part too! Shared expectations will reduce arguments and keep everyone safe & healthy.

You may find the Internet Matters parent-child quiz iPad app useful for its quiz that is fun and full of conversation starters.

Family agreement - whether for primary pupils' first steps or for teen power users.

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Thorn have 18 topic-based discussion guides with questions to help start conversations!

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Can you watch this short Will Ferrell clip without laughing...or seeing yourself in it? You can visit this site to view the video and many other videos.

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If you have an iPad, this quiz app is great for starting conversations.

We have selected our top two or three resources to help parents on six key themes, which we think are important to all families. Take a look and see what you think - even if you think it may not apply to you.

This is obviously a massive topic, but to help parents talk to children about the issues, check out the new #AskTheAwkward campaign from NCA-CEOP, with videos and tips on how to have 'that' kind of conversation. 

From Thorn, this guidance on puberty and tech (for different age ranges from 4-6 to 13+ and beyond) is well worth a read

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Or use these Children's Commissioner info sheets and top tips for having awkard conversations with children

You can always speak to your child's school for advice, but there are many other places to go for help. 

If you are worried about any child, call the NSPCC helpline. In an emergency, call 999.

But there are plenty of specialist helplines. Visit reporting.lgfl.net to find out how to remove content from social media and where to report bullying, racial hatred, terrorism, sexual abuse and more. 

There are also links for children and young people to get help directly, such as Childline or The Mix (for 13-25s).

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You should check out these amazing organisations which support parents and are bound to have something useful for you. 

...for their newsletter and approach

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...for their app, game & film guides

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...for guidance and resources

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...for parental control guides

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...for their passion and expertise