Tell TalkTalk how you deal with internet safety in your home - £150 voucher up for grabs! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

TalkTalk has asked us to find out what Mumsnetters do in the way of internet safety at home.

Here's what TalkTalk say, "The internet is at the heart of our homes and at TalkTalk we believe everyone should be able to have fun online without worrying about the safety of their family. As its Safer Internet Day on 11 February we are encouraging families to be safer online by activating our whole home online security system, HomeSafe. Exclusively available for TalkTalk customers free of charge, HomeSafe protects your whole home online through every device connected to your TalkTalk broadband.

Keeping you and your family safer online is our top priority which is why we have worked with The Parent Zone, to support Safer Internet Day, to share our tops tips for keeping children safe online. With this in mind why not test how internet savvy you are with our Internet Age Calculator. You can see how your internet know-how stacks up against a ten-year old."

So, what are your top tips for keeping your family safe online are? What are you and aren't you comfortable with your children doing online? What role does the internet play in your family life? Have you had any experiences where your child has done something they shouldn't have online? Whatever it is we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Everyone who shares their opinions on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

[CMOTDibbler]

Thank you!!!!!!

[MichelleMumsnet]

Hi - thanks everyone for the comments. This thread has now closed, the winner of the prize draw is CMOTDibbler, congratulations! We'll be in touch shortly.

[IncaAztec]

So, what are your top tips for keeping your family safe online are? Mine would be to totally disable any payment feature (a lot of dodgy sites require payment of some sort) and to put adult content filters on. We also have mobile broadband so can turn off the internet entirely.

What are you and aren't you comfortable with your children doing online? I won't let them bank or use social media.

What role does the internet play in your family life? A big part, we always seem to have something that has to be done online.

Have you had any experiences where your child has done something they shouldn't have online? Not yet, but something is bound to come up!

[Marbleroses]

My girls are quite young. My eldest is three and loves educational apps on the iPad and music on YouTube. But she is obviously very closely watched and supervised. I worry about them in the future and finding out what we need to do to protect them will certainly be top priority. I will never want computers in bedrooms etc. I use the internet all the time for work and social media and shopping. It's very easy to forget the dangers of fraud etc when it's a daily activity, plus so easy...we own phones, tablet and laptops.

[Patchouli]

Dd (9) has her own login on the laptop where she can only access websites that I've added to her 'allowed' list. When she wants to browse other things, I'm with her.
When she goes on the iPad I have to type a pin in for her to access Safari, so I know when she's browsing and can keep an eye. Or if I'm too busy to then, again, she can only access previously 'allowed' websites.

I know that she's that age where she'll soon be wanting more internet freedom, but for now everyone' happy.

[Roseformeplease]

My children are 12 and 13 and are tech savvy well beyond me, or their Dad. However, we operate on trust, rather than looking over their shoulders. They know porn is banned and have both been told that they will lose their internet privileges (and their computers / phones) if they abuse this trust. Both use Facebook but they are under assumed names and they are only allowed friends that they have met in real life and I even limit which age groups within their. (Tiny) secondary school they can be friends with. I don't want them reading posts with pissed Sixth Years when they are so much younger.

Mostly, they watch films and telly and chat to friends. I honk cyber bullying is highly unlikely because of their limited list of friends and the small close knit community we are in. One ex- friend said some unpleasant things about my DD to another friend. He, and my DD both blocked her immediately and did so before telling parents. We are, I suppose, relying on our values being instilled. However, I teach all their friends so I have some security from knowing that this provides some protection.

I want them to have privacy. My son is gay and had spent months discussing this with others on an anonymous forum before talking to us about it. I would not have been comfortable finding this out by monitoring his computer as this is his secret and his decision who / when to tell.

If there was some way of blocking bad stuff through the router I would be interested. We did a BT trial for this through Mumsnet and it was still a bit clunky but will, I suspect, get there fairly soon. But I would ban stuff for the whole household as I believe very strongly in privacy and trust.

[EddieReadersglasses]

We have homesafe via talktalk. It's easy to set up and is great, I'd totally recommend it.
We also keep a close eye on Dcs when they are using iPad

[NumptyNameChange]

sorry that was written bloody terribly.

[NumptyNameChange]

just a thought but what i suspect internet is not some separate issue - if you are in general teaching your child to be careful and sensible and take problem solve (giving them opportunities to walk places and learning road safety, exposing them to all sorts of people and encouraging them to use their instincts, talk about concerns about people etc, allowing them to play with friends without constant parent supervision, encouraging them to be self respecting and know their boundaries, trust their instincts etc) then that fits to their behaviour with regard to technology as well.

i'm guessing that the parents who don't actively get involved with the technology issues are the same parents who don't do all that other stuff too. it isn't in isolation.

[NumptyNameChange]

i've surprised myself by becoming a bit more relaxed about it. possibly because i bought a pc (hands off my laptop) for the lounge at christmas and installed minecraft for ds (nearly 7) and the reality of him being on the internet is actually a lot less scary than the idea. he looks up how to do things on minecraft, goes to the cbbc website and watches things or plays games and looks up pictures of things. i guess i am keeping him safe by being around and by discussing issues with him. he is at an age of uber openness and so it's actually a good time to let him have a bit of freedom with my supervision there but not overbearing or panicky and to just talk about stuff.

i worry that parental controls just give people a false sense of security.

he doesn't use any sites where he can communicate with others and so far only uses minecraft on single player but wants to join a server so i'm looking into finding a whitelisted, child friendly one with very clear family focus and rules.

i 'think' at this stage that i will try to keep the openness and discussion and i will continue not to allow computers in his bedroom even when he is considerably older. i also have no intention of letting him have a mobile phone young and if i had to it would be one that couldn't access the internet. i really think that probably like everything it's going to be a case of keeping talking, explaining concerns at age appropriate levels, using examples, encouraging critical thinking and good boundaries etc.

[Bubbles85]

Our LO is too small to use the Internet at the moment but when she is a little older and starts to show an interest I plan to limit her time using it and to make sure she always uses it in my company so I know what she is doing.

[MmeCItronPresse]

Our twins are 5 years old. I heard some giggles this afternoon as they took my ipad and managed to put bbciplayer on and watch a cbeebies program. So far quite innocent, but I need to hike up our Internet security as I am worried about inappropriate content on YouTube and the likes that they could inadvertently come across. Had a look at the home safe and it looks quite good. Also I think the key is to limit Internet access to faily areas (kitchen etc) and keep talking to one's children about what is safe, not safe or bad.

[Willemdefoeismine]

DH uses a 'log-me-in' system to randomly check on what DS (13) is doing! I take a less 'techy' approach by looking at the 'search history'!

[Blu]

We are horribly safety-illiterate in this respect.
At the moment I rely on regular spot checks on DS's internet history.
The TALKTALK package sounds good, and we are TALKTALK customers. Just one thing: if it covers absolutely everything coming in, would it block some of the stuff DP needs to access for work? he is in a branch of media (no, not porn! In any form) and reads lots of bids with images of naked bodies, descriptions and pics of sexually related material or stuff that might be detected as such by a screening package.

But of course that is on DP's laptop, not any device DS has access to.

[MrsLoada]

Kids are 11 and 12 we've had long discussions about internet safety and talked about what we expect from them, they know we can check their search online history so can check what they have been doing. And don't say anything on line that you wouldn't say face to face ( or anything that you won't say in front of grandma ) we don't block any websites but we do block internet access on their devices from 9 pm till 8 am as they don't need it at night and don't want them on iPads/ laptops when they should be asleep

[ummlilia]

dd9 has an android tablet.I set it up using an email address which is an alias,part of my own google account so I have access to and control of everything. I set safe search on youtube and parental controls on tv apps and where possible I vet things she hasn't used before. The problem I am having now is peer pressure..she is begging to go on Skype with her classmates. I banned this after hearing one 'friend' encouraging her to delete their IMs, and asking her to go off into another room so I couldn't hear the conversation (I have ongoing issues with this friend but that's another story).
We have had conversations about security..a useful thing we watched ws a CBBC short film..called Caught In the Web www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/13908828

[glammanana]

My DD and I make sure we are always in the room when my DGCs are using either laptop or tablet and are always glancing at what they are viewing the devices have very good anti-virus installed and are used mainly for homework & occasional games which we monitor closely,they also are into sports so are not using the internet for anything else they are smart kids and know the implications as they have been advised well on the subject at school & by us.

[sealight123]

My daughter is only 2 and a half, so she is still supervised to an inch of her life when using our gadgets and looking on youtube (she is currently loving Mandarin Elmo :S) but we do have all of our devices child locked on each device, password protected (so she can'y but any little extras) and they all have good anti-virus software. As she gets older we'll teach her about IT security, as I am an IT support advisor.

[goldenretriever]

Mine are only 3 and 4, but they can play with the laptop if we are in the room - this will change obviously. At the moment they like to watch clips and songs on Youtube.

[HootyMcOwlface]

My DH is the tech savvy one who sets up the security controls. I should learn really, before my DS gets too much older.
We've got a tablet and a computer. I've heard the horror stories about in app purchases so we've got those blocked, and I plan to supervise any internet time for DS.
I guess the problems come when they get older and have their own phone, and you have to teach them about appropriate use.

[kslatts]

Both my daughters (ages 14 and 12) have ipads and are allowed to go online in their own rooms. We don't restrict what websites they visit, etc. but have long discussions about staying safe online.

[Pinter]

No laptops or smartphones in bedrooms.
Internet use in shared family rooms only.
Parental controls on home computers.
Talk about images/ selfies etc age appropriately.
Don't say anything online you wouldn't say face to face.

[KnitActually]

we've started talking about internet safety with our 5 year old. he understands that we don't let him scroll through Google images or you tube in case there is something too old for him that might be upsetting or confusing.

[popperdoodles]

We have always taken the approach of keeping internet use in family spaces so we can see what they are accessing. Now they are older we do trust them to take the laptop into their rooms. The internet is just the same as real life, you have to trust them to make good choices based on what you have taught them.

[BobaFetaCheese]

We have a 2year old (and a not very tech savvy 6 month old), obviously he's never alone with tech as he only has access to it on mobile phones.

I have an android phone and use a child lock app (Kids Place if anyone is interested) to block his access to anything other than youtube.

I think parents should take it upon themselves to learn everything about tech to ensure they stay one step ahead of the ever-learning sponges of information that are their children.
It's scary how many threads appear on mumsnet where children have used inapp purchases to spend £100+!

I've just done that talktalk Internet Age Calculator (smarter than a 10 year old, woohoo!).
I'm 26 and was a child back when we had microsoft chatrooms on hulking great desktop PCs, it was easy enough to arrange a meetup then so I can only imagine when children get their own phones & use social dating/meet up apps how little the parents would know.