Tell NSPCC about the family rules you have to keep safe online - chance to win a £300 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

NSPCC have teamed up with O2 to launch their #ShareAware campaign. Here’s what they have to say: ‘We tell our children to share, but online it’s different. In fact, sometimes sharing online can be dangerous. That’s why we’ve joined forces with O2 to ask parents to be Share Aware and keep children safe online. With the internet changing all the time it can be hard to keep up to date but our Net Aware guide gives an overview of the sites young people use. . Our straightforward, no-nonsense advice will untangle the web, and show you how you can be just as great a parent online as you are the rest of the time.’

As a parent, your main priority is to keep your self and your family safe, and this means agreeing on some rules for when you’re surfing the web, for both you and your child. As part of their #ShareAware campaign to keep children safe online, NSPCC and O2 want to know about the family agreements you have in place to make sure you and your DC stay out of trouble - the family contracts you have in place within your home to help things run smoothly.

So, maybe you always make sure there’s an adult present when your DC is online or have you agreed to not share images of your child without their permission? Perhaps no one is allowed on their phones at the table. Every family has a set of rules that works for them, so post on this thread to tell NSPCC and O2 about your family agreements and you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

For more information, or to download your family agreement template, visit Share Aware
here to download your family online agreement template.

Thanks so much for taking part, and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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My great niece is too young to use the internet yet but she will be supervised when she does & there will be parental controls on everything

I have a 10 year old DS who plays Xbox and uses his tablet. Basic rule is he doesn't play or go online with one of us in the room with him. Tablet not allowed to be taken upstairs.

We have discussed internet safety and told him he can come to us if he sees anything that upsets or confuses him or if someone makes him uncomfortable. We've made a promise that if he comes to us we would never shout at or punish him rather that our job is to deal with things that he can't.

We regards to user names on Xbox we explained why he needs to avoid using his name or any name which indicates that he is a child either by using a character from i.e. Skylanders or year of both and we chose a suitable user name together. I have passwords to all his accounts.

We've explained that once your information is out "there" is is always there. It's like standing outside our house and handing out bits of paper with all his details and interests on.

Big dicussion about not knowing who anyone is online. I used the basic example that I could log onto his Xbox and his friends would think they are playing with him and unaware they are playing with middle-aged me so there's nothing stopping someone who wishes to cause him harm doing the same.

Some great tips on this thread. You can never be too informed and it's so important to share ideas on how to keep our children safe.

Our rules are that the younger ones can only be online in the same room as mum or dad, so we can have access at all times to what they're looking at the older ones it's a bit more tricky they have to have us as friends on the social media accounts and at night time all devices remain in the kitchen once it's past bed time

No phones or other devices at the dinner table.

Always install parental controls also block social media from gadgets and time limits on tablets etc

we always supervise Internet access for our 6 year old just in case he accidently stumbles on content that is not suitable to view

My children are 10 and 8 and as yet, have shown no interest on social media. They have passwords but DH and I know these and regularly check what they have been looking at. XBox is set to private with only invited friends and we have not allowed the headset (the friends added on the Xbox are ones we have spoken to their parents about and are known to us). Other than that we just keep reminding them that if anything unusual pops up to show us, to never ever give personal details such as name, age, where we live and never ever to take a photograph to put online. We have talked about people not being who they appear to be on the internet too.

Talk to them lots obviously.

Gadgets are not allowed upstairs except with prior agreement and never allowed in bedrooms after bedtime.

DC are not allowed to download any apps themselves - we have the password which we put in for them.

Never give out personal detail, never believe someone is actually who they are claiming to be.

We have no tech or gadgets at the table. The computer is in the living room so they can be supervised at all times. It has also been drummed into them to tell mum or dad if someone tries to talk to them online that they do not know, or if anyone makes inappropriate comments to them.

We agree in our house that there are restrictions on the time spent on social media and with my internet provider I can block any websites I feel are necessary. We also have PIN numbers for all gadgets and for some TV programmes. Also no iPads etc in the bedrooms

Tablets only used under supervision.

I think parental controls and supervision are really important. Of course open and honest conversation is really good but my child is too young to comprehend this and I wouldn't dream of letting her use a device without my supervision.

I think a good policy for children under 10 is to have supervised Internet access when they need it. The rest of the time you can disconnect devices from the Internet if they want to play pre-downloaded games etc

We put parental control on the internet and also check social media accounts as and when.

My brother used to work for CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) so Internet safety has always been prominent in our house. We receive a weekly report from our sons laptop which summarises websites visited, and any websites that were blocked. We have also always discussed grooming in simple, straightforward, ungraphic terms, how people can be whoever they want to be online, and cyber bullying, so we aren't relying on our gadgets parental controls to tell us when something is untoward, and ours on is savvy to the real world.

My son knows that chat rooms / private messages are a no no

Our daughter is a little young still for the internet (in our minds anyway) so the internet function is disabled on her tablet and she can only access pre-downloaded apps.

My son was a computer genius and knew more about IT by the age of 10 than I will ever know, This made it difficult to limit or ban him so we talked about privacy and openess instead

DD is 8 and has her own iPad, we have very strict parental controls on it so we can monitor what she is watching. She has movies on it which we have downloaded, we have put Safari, Settings and other Apps in a folder and moved it off the home page and renamed it. She does not have access to emails and it is linked to my iPad so if one of her friends face times her, it rings on mine as well so I always know who she is talking to even though I cannot see or hear the conversation.

We all eat together

Our children only go on the internet with supervision anyway at the moment but we will be putting parental controls on as soon as they are old enough to be using the computer on their own.

have always told kids not to give out personal details and keep a track of their online activity

Or rules are not to except anyone you dont know personally and do not add adult even family member because even those can be fake or dangerous because when alot of this happen its sometimes is someone you know, And we have safe searchers so she can't go on or view certain content and to check up on there profile monthly to make sure no one is talking them.

I have watched the CEOP KS1 Film 'Lee and Kim' with my little boy on YouTube which I heartily recommend for parents of any young child age 5-7. It introduces children to the basic principles of keeping safe on the internet. My little boy uses the YouTube for kids app and is closely monitored. When he is older we will definitely be using parental controls and limiting use of social media etc. Also, I think it is important to have lots of informal chat about the issues surrounding use of technology.

Only my oldest two dds are allowed social media and they are teens but there only allowed family and there friends that they associate with but my younger children are not allowed social media they all have iPads that they use but the younger ones only use it to watch Disney films or plays games I always check the history to make sure aswell but my older girls use there for social media but mostly for looking at clothes and playing games and watching movies both my oldest have phones aswell but aren't allowed on it during meal times or after 8pm as they have home work and other priorities also I tell all my children that talking to each other is the best communication as it keeps us a close family using phones and social media can cause social problems I don't mind my kids using technology safely and limiting there use of it as I don't want them online all day everyday as it then becomes to hard to monitor them to make sure there is no online bullying or other things happening to them all my children understand why I limit there usage and check up on them as they know am just looking out for them and being a good parent