Talk to Virgin Media about your internet habits and internet safety for your DCs - you could win an iPad Air! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Virgin Media have asked us to find out out about Mumsnetters' internet habits, as well as internet safety for your DCs.

Virgin Media say "At Virgin Media we know that the online world offers loads of opportunities for kids to have fun, explore and learn new things. But there might also be some things that you’d rather your child didn’t see or do. The web's packed with fun and informative stuff for your kids to explore but, just like in the real world, there are things we all need to watch out for. Experts say that much of what you know about parenting in the real world also applies online, and at the end of the day, you know your kids best! So, we'd love to hear about how you and your children use the internet"

Below are a few points to get you started, but feel free to add any other comments you have:

• How do you help your DC(s) be responsible and stay safe in the real world? Can this be applied online?
• How do you help your DC(s) make the most of the online world, and become a safe and responsible user(s) of the internet?
• Last time you were choosing your broadband and TV services, how did you make your decision? Was it based on things like recommendations from friends or family, or reviews? Did you buy online, over the phone or go into a store?
• How important is the speed of internet in your household? Do you know what your broadband speeds allows you? What do you know about fibre optic broadband?

Please note, Virgin Media may use your comments on social media and elsewhere, so please only comment if you're happy with this.

Everyone who adds a comment to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad Air (Space Grey, 16GB and Wi-Fi enabled).

Thanks, and good luck!
MNHQ

PS - Check out Virgin Media's exclusive offers for Mumsnetters here.

Have talked to them to make sure they understand how to be safe online, and will only let them use the internet when in the same room.
They use the internet to look things up, especially for school, as well as things they just want to know, and play educational games. To keep them safe we have parental controls set so can pick and choose what is able to be accessed.
I looked online at the best offers for the different packages to choose my broadband.
Next year firbeoptic broadband is finally becoming available where I live and I will be going onto it, having speedy internet is very important as so much is done online, especially with living locally, so I'm on the fastest speed available in the area.

I don't know the speed of our internet, we only notice if it stops working. When we started using it we could only go with one provider, but when that stopped working and the provider couldn't fix it we moved to Sky who paid for a new telephone line to be installed. We use Sky shield which I can check online is working to block over 18 sites. As for safety in the real world, you have to start from an early age telling them not to go off with strangers or give out personal information (the same as talking to people online - they might not be who they say they are).

• How do you help your DC(s) be responsible and stay safe in the real world? Can this be applied online?

They're only 8 and 5 so I keep a very close watch on them basically, plus give them the right knowledge and skills to take care of themselves, (road safety for example, safety in the home/kitchen). I guess in part in translates online because - in that area too - I just keep a very close eye on them and at the moment they don't have any freedom to just go online, so they are protected in that sense.

• How do you help your DC(s) make the most of the online world, and become a safe and responsible user(s) of the internet?

At the moment, they're very young - they only go online while I am there, to play games or to play music videos that I look up for them. As they get older I will have to have a talk to them about being safe online, but as yet I haven't felt the need because they have no freedom on there.

• Last time you were choosing your broadband and TV services, how did you make your decision? Was it based on things like recommendations from friends or family, or reviews? Did you buy online, over the phone or go into a store?

My husband completely took over with that - so, I think he just compared different offers and then did it online.

• How important is the speed of internet in your household? Do you know what your broadband speeds allows you? What do you know about fibre optic broadband?

It's important but I'm clueless about what speed I'm on etc...again, my husband is more into the technical side of it, but he knows I need a fast connection. I'd prefer it to be faster than it is.

The only real way to keep the children completely safe is supervision. For us, situating the computer in a central location means that I can keep an eye on everything they do as I'm always around and about.
In our house, there's also a ban on online gaming with chat features as they usually feature some terrible language.
Staying safe online is such a minefield that for us at least is the only way of staying reasonably safe and keeping the bad things at bay.

My little girl is only 3 and she uses a computer mainly to play games on it!!!She has got her on log in details which helps if she just watched Peppa Pig on you tube as its saves her watched programmes..ect..games.. or let them to watch it next time again. When she is on the computer I always want to see what she is watching so she is not unsupervised if online!!

I find myself out of my depth when it comes to supervision on the internet. They know so much more than me, not they are being deceptive it's just impossible to monitor everything.

I'm responsible for keeping a 3 and 7 year old safe on the internet and at the moment it's relatively easy because I know exactly when they are online and exactly what they are doing.
We wouldn't let the 3 year old or the 7 year old go to places on their own in the real world and we apply this same rule online as neither of them are allowed to access sites without telling me first. The only computers they have access to are the iPads and tablets owned by myself and hubby - both of which have passcode and password protection so they can only get online if they ask us to log them on and they can't download anything from app stores without our passwords. Both of us change codes and passwords regularly.
I think it's vital that both of them understand how important the internet is so we use it regularly together for help with homework, reading stories, catching up with other relatives via facebook, messenger and skype, etc. Everytime we log on we talk about how much we have learned and how much we enjoy it. We then reinforce this message by repeating that they can continue to enjoy it as long as they never go online without our permission.
I realise that we are lucky that at the moment neither the 3 year old or the 7 year old want to access the internet on their own however they do have free reign to watch TV or listen to the radio - both of which are delivered over broadband connected devices, so when we chose our Broadband service provider it was vital that we could apply parental controls to the channels they can access.
Our Broadband is delivered over fibre rather than copper so we have a pretty high speed. This is really important as quite often there are numerous devices - tablets, phones, TV's, games, etc connected. Also, when we use Skype to talk to family members elsewhere we want the best possible quality. We also use on demand TV services, both for our own use and for access to the films suitable for a 3 and 7 year old.

I can't stress enough how important it is to be vigilant. Even though I consider myself internet savvy, I have almost been caught out by downloading an app for the 3 year old which looked totally safe but turned out to have some inappropriate content hidden behind an innocent looking facade.
My advice for anyone is, if you think you don;t know enough about keeping children safe - talk to friends, family and your internet provider for advice - and follow it!

I have parental controls set high on my sons tablet and only let him use my laptop in the living room. My son plays apps and has just started looking things up for homework on google.
The internet does worry me, am now feeling i need to do more to protect him!!
Although the internet is a wonderful thing, and a massive part of all of our life's.
I really don't understand about the broadband, i did discuss it with my provided who explained it, but still not sure. All seems to be working ok, thats all that matters to me.

My daughter is only 6, I only let her use the internet supervised. I have virgin broadband at home and I really trust that it is safe. We have safe browsing installed and child filters etc and I trust them.

I live alone and so I am the only user of my computer so there has been no real need to implement safeguards up till now. However I am going to have to research what to do as my grandchildren have started to ask to play games on my computer when they visit.

they are allowed cbeebies, cbbc and coolmaths. any other site needs an adult. I check their usage and history. any violations gets their accounts password protected and use requires adult supervision.. which means they get less time as I am often cooking tea.

broadband was chosen by looking at reviews about the level of service. crappy providers were not considered even if the price was cheaper.

My son only uses Ipad when in room with an adult hes 6 but even at 3he knew how to get on you tube and now he can spell hard to 100 % censor him as youtube isnt censored.

So just have to keep on if we catch him watching stuff with bad words he will lose ipad for a day etc.

We awaiting ASD/ADHD diagnosis so gadgets mean the world to him as he gets so much euphoria from doing well , which he doesnt get so much from school as apart from maths and computer based learning he does struggle at time. Hard at times to find a healthy balance which dont upset him

• How do you help your DC(s) make the most of the online world, and become a safe and responsible user(s) of the internet?

Switch on browsers and Engine Search with parent lock.

• Last time you were choosing your broadband and TV services, how did you make your decision? Was it based on things like recommendations from friends or family, or reviews? Did you buy online, over the phone or go into a store?

To Upgrade for better connection and based on past experiences, to look at the options online then made final agreement over the phone.

• How important is the speed of internet in your household? Do you know what your broadband speeds allows you? What do you know about fibre optic broadband?

Very important to have good fast speed as not want to waste time by waiting for pages download slowly and am on Infinity Fibre now.

• How do you help your DC(s) be responsible and stay safe in the real world? Can this be applied online?

Well we talk about stranger danger. At the moment my son doesn't have a clue about online chatting so when he gets to that age, we'll have a little chat about that too.

• How do you help your DC(s) make the most of the online world, and become a safe and responsible user(s) of the internet?

I tend to keep him away from websites that look dodgy and I block them or put passwords on them.

• Last time you were choosing your broadband and TV services, how did you make your decision? Was it based on things like recommendations from friends or family, or reviews? Did you buy online, over the phone or go into a store?

Honestly, it was based on the speed and family reviews.

• How important is the speed of internet in your household? Do you know what your broadband speeds allows you? What do you know about fibre optic broadband?

It's very important for me as we all use the internet in our household. I know that fibre optic broadband is very fast which is why I have it at the moment.

DD1 is 3, so doesn't have much access to the internet. We do allow her to watch some cartoons on the internet - Dora the Explorer and Team Umi Zumi, but we watch with her.
Her nana has an iPad and DD1 plays on some apps about the alphabet and jigsaws, again, under supervision.
Our broadband is provided by plusnet because sky kept letting us down and had terrible customer service. We don't get a great speed, but it's typical of our area.

Mine are not Internet aware yet as too young but I'm worried about keeping them safe online in the next few years

How do you help your DC(s) be responsible and stay safe in the real world? Can this be applied online?
Some things are the same - talking about risks, being interested in what they're doing, age-appropriate supervision.

How do you help your DC(s) make the most of the online world, and become a safe and responsible user(s) of the internet?
We use the internet together a lot, to help us answer questions, to look up more information about things we're interested in. We talk about how not everything you see online is reliable (similar to conversations we've had about adverts on tv, or things his friends say), about what things make it more likely that you can trust the information you find.

Also that if you're interacting with others online it's just the same as doing it in real life - you don't talk to strangers, you treat others (rl friends only at the moment) as you would if you were playing with them in the playground - no bullying, no hurting others or spoiling their things (minecraft).

Last time you were choosing your broadband and TV services, how did you make your decision? Was it based on things like recommendations from friends or family, or reviews? Did you buy online, over the phone or go into a store?
We last changed our broadband because we moved house. We'd like to have stayed with Virgin actually, but they don't supply our area (or at least they didn't at the time). When we were looking for a new supplier we based it on recommendations from friends, price and speed. All done by phone or online.

How important is the speed of internet in your household? Do you know what your broadband speeds allows you? What do you know about fibre optic broadband?
Internet speed is important to us. Ds1 plays Minecraft multiplayer with friends and you need decent speed. We also stream a lot of multimedia content. When we first moved in we just had BT basic broadband and it was painfully slow - we really missed our Virgin fibre optic speeds. We've now got access to fibre optic via a new BT Infinity installation and it's night and day.

My child is not yet school age, and only uses the internet with me. We sometimes watch YouTube videos and I am careful that he doesn't just click random videos to watch. I am equally vigilant with tv, fit example I wouldn't leave him unsupervised watching the news. I have TiVo and like that in the latest upgrade, TiVo recordings are grouped by folder with there being a folder for "kids". I would like if we can also create our own folders (or categories) perhaps grouping programs by the family member's name, so that e.g. under 10s and over 12s have their own folders.

I do shop around for deals with tv and broadband etc, but like TiVo so was happy that virgin offered me am incentive to renew my contact with them.

I pay little attention to the advertised broadband speed offered as the advertised speed is a max speed rather than a speed that customers can actually expect.

My daughter is only one so i dont really have the worry at the moment. I am a Childminder so do have older children which i have to be careful what they see. I do this by monitoring what they are doing. In regards to broadband speed, we are in a new area and getting a fibre optic is not possible We get about 2MB on a good day which is very sad as im a complete internet addict

How do you help your DC(s) be responsible and stay safe in the real world? Can this be applied online

I talk to my children about behaviours of others. Same with online world, that they need to be wary of others and appearances can be deceptive. They little now so not much freedom online but I think it good to start the conversation.

How do you help your DC(s) make the most of the online world, and become a safe and responsible user(s) of the internet?

My kids don't have their own device and use mine. They are only little and I supervise pretty closely what they do.

last time you were choosing your broadband and TV services, how did you make your decision? Was it based on things like recommendations from friends or family, or reviews? Did you buy online, over the phone or go into a store?

I got recommendations as to good internet provider and reliability of service and then looked at "packages" with phone, broadband and TV.

How important is the speed of internet in your household? Do you know what your broadband speeds allows you? What do you know about fibre optic broadband?

I don't know the tactical details but Internet speed is vital as I woek from home sometimes.

Dd is 13. In the real world we give her the usual advice about not talking to strangers etc. For online we've told her never to give out personal details, not to believe everything she is told.

We have parental controls on the computer and on her phone, so she can't visit any old site, although we have had to relax the restrictions a bit now she's a bit older.

We changed our broadband provider a few weeks ago, as Infinity was too expensive. We are now with EE and should have up to 10mb, but in reality only have 2 mb, which is a bit laggy with me working from home, dh at home too, ds playing online games, dd on Minecraft ..

Hopefully we can go back to infinity at some point, but at present we needed to save money.

My two are still pre-schoolers but we learned the hard way that you still have to be careful. My eldest, who has autism, loves to watch train videos on YouTube. He knows that you can click the images down the right hand side to see similar videos. I didn't realise how risky that was until he got from a bullet train video to footage someone had taken inside their apartment during an earthquake. It was tame and we stopped it after a few seconds, but the stuff that showed up in the next 'related' selection was definitely inappropriate.

And the stuff that came up when I searched for videos of London taxis for him

Speed and reliability of internet is really important - I am now with Sky and not finding them great tbh, I did find Virgin better which I had in my old flat.

I don't have DC so not too much I can contribute re internet safety for children, though when I was younger the computer was in the living room so we were on it in a "public" place where anyone could see over your shoulder, discouraging doing anything too dodgy! That would be much harder to enforce these days as so much is done on tablets and phones. It's definitely important to stay vigilant - for cyber bullying or general dodgy behaviour from friends and schoolmates almost just as much as any grooming or porn.

My ten year old dd has an IPad mini it is really simple to disable safari when she takes it into her bedroom.

We have BT super fast broadband. I know its a bill we could reduce but its so complicated understand everything!

My 7 year old is only interested in apps. I will teach him basic internet safety as he gets older. We need to set parental controls. So far when I have DH moans about not being about to get on Facebook so obv too strictly set.