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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

sorry that was written bloody terribly.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[CMOTDibbler]

Thank you!!!!!!