Mumsnet users talk online safety and cyberbullying with Kaspersky

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Many children are now growing up with technology at their fingertips and social media often at the centre of their digital world, making it more important than ever to discuss online safety with children and be aware of the effects of cyberbullying. Kaspersky would like to hear about the ways you protect your children from bullying when they’re online.

Here’s what Kaspersky has to say: “Do you really know what your kids do online? Can you be sure they’re safe when connected? Kaspersky gives you new and better ways to keep your kids safe on PC, Mac and Mobile."

Do you have tips for talking about cyberbullying with your children? Do you utilise parental control technology so you know what’s going on in their digital world? If your child has experienced cyberbullying, what advice do you have for other parents?

Whatever your tips or experience, share this below to be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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My DC (8 and 11) only use the internet when they are supervised. I don’t ‘look over their shoulder’ every minute but I check regularly. With the youngest it’s just slime videos or musical theatre;?they are only allowed YouTube Kids, not ‘full’ YouTube.
The parental controls are on the highest setting and they are not allowed on ‘chatrooms’, forums or anything where people can contact them; even the XBox isn’t set up to talk to/play against other people (although this is not the case with lots of their friends).
I won’t stop them using Social Media when they reach the necessarybage but I will ‘read the he riot act’ and monitor closely.

I am so nervous about internet safety and bullying. My daughter's 4 so at the moment I'm just trying to avoid devices, but already she has friends with phones. I think being in the same room whilst tgey are being used is important and I like the resources available from the nspcc.

I am so worried about cyber bullying. I think it is one of the most important things to discuss with kids these days as there as so many awful stories about. I have discussed at length with mine about it including watching videos and reading articles to them to make them understand the importance of it. I want them to know that if it ever happens to them they can't just ignore it and must tell someone about it straight away. Talking about it and trying to be honest as a family is really the only thing that I can think of to combat it. Luckily mine are still too young for it but I know in the future it might be an issue so I am trying to educate them early about it.

My kids are not allowed any social media sites on their devices. They play games and chat with friends online but only people I know.

I always talk to my daughter about the do's and don'ts, so far so good.

I have an app on my daughter's ipod which allows me to disconnect the ipod at certain times, so I can moitor useage (DD is 9). Group messaging has become a massive thing of late, and I have taught her never to say something in a message, which she wouldn't say to someone's face - I also religiously check her messages to check nothing untoward is being said - i'm pretty sure lots of parents aren't checking their children's devices though, as you should have seen the cringetastic video one child sent to a group of kids my daughter happens to be on, this morning.

Our younger children don't have their games on the internet when we are not with them, and normally they just play each other when using their tablets. They know why, we have explained as best as we can. When they are old enough to go on the internet we will put parental controls on.

One of the best ways of ensuring your children are safe are to always talk to them about what you/they have seen online, be open and honest. That way you can make sure that they feel that they can talk to you if they feel troubled by anything.

Ensuring that they use the internet in family areas also helps you keep track of what sites they're on, who they are talking to etc.

Also don't forget games consoles too - children can be communicating with anyone whilst online gaming on their PS4s/X boxes etc

we don't allow our son to have a social media page and have bt inbuilt parental control

talk to them.try and keep things open.explain how some people can be nasty online because they are hiding behind there computers.how they must come to us if anything feels strange or wrong to them.anything at all.if they see nastynness they come to us.
if anyone they don't know trys to get in touch tell us.dont trust anyone with addresses numbers etc.
don't give out any details.
don't let anyone do videos.
general things.
don't feel sad or lonely or scared by anything that they see or come across onlines.whatever happens they can come to you.no matter what it is.

The only way to deal with this is to be super involved.

It’s always the clueless or careless parents whose kids are running amok online.

If you’re not monitoring what your child is doing then you are leaving them open to so much harm.

I hope to be as open as possible about social media and use of it.. my family always had a really open attitude to it all.. and nothing was hard to share.. we'd regularly have 'get it out' chats where we were able to talk about stuff. I'm hoping to stay at least 'in the game' as I'm a teacher so have to know about the latest apps and trends...

Keeping an open dialogue with your kids is the best way. They need to feel able to talk to you about anything even difficult subjects like cyber bullying.

I think the most important thing is to make sure that you communicate with your children about what they are doing online and keep up to date yourself with the changing technologies. If they're using a new app - research it!

We’ve used the NSPCC resources to talk about online safety and cyber bullying. Children are still too young for social media and we have a parental filter on every device they use. Internet use always supervised by a parent. I think you cannot be to careful, but I think the main thing is keeping communication open so they know you are always on their side whatever happens in life or online.

I covered this with our eldest and was amazed by how much they have been taught by school.
Twice DS has had to tell me off for calling his name into his room as 'if he was online it would reveal his real name'.

Children need to be shown (by example) that using social media is not everything in life- there's a far more important real world out there!

I wouldn't want the ipad used in a different room from us, and thankfully we aren't at the age where a phone is needed. It does worry me because it's something that didn't exist in my day so it will be totally new to me if it happens and I'm not certain how you handle it. We raise her to tell us what is going on and if she is unhappy and its something we will need to address one day (to make sure she doesn't do it to others too). Picked u some good tips on here

When talking to my children about cyber bullying, I let them know that it's never ok and if they're ever feeling hurt by things that people are doing or saying, for example on social media, to tell me or a friend. I want my kids to feel safe and protected and confident and that they have my support whenever they need it.

I would talk to them about it and to tell you about any problems that they are having.

I limit them online & warn them of dangers, but only so much you can do

I haven't set up any controls yet but all internet use happens with us close by (same room, screen in view but not normally right next to) so that we can keep a watch on what they are doing.

We have talked to the oldest two about bullying in general, leading on to it happening on the internet and how people find it easier to type nasty things than say it, and that they should tell us if they see anyone being nasty (not really specified 'to them' as didn't want to worry them that this might happen to them, just if they see people saying mean/nasty things in general)

We try and talk about this as much as we can. I like to remind my son that anything he puts out there will be there forever. That made him think.
They use the family computer and we can see what they go on. When he's older and wants to use social media more - I'm worried about that.

Like others, my strategy is talk to DC about it, parental controls, supervision. It's difficult as it's not something that I can relate to as I never had social media growing up. It seems that at a certain age there is peer pressure to be in chat rooms and on social media, so when DC gets older I'll have to be more vigilant.

I'm dreading this, I really am..

I think like so many things, having open communication about anything that might be worrying your kids is key.

But remember- this works both ways. Obviously it's important to be aware of our children's online activities and to teach them to stay safe, but it's just as crucial that we teach our children to BE KIND themselves. Things can so quickly get out of hand when you're hiding behind a computer screen, and sometimes what one person might think is a joke can be really upsetting for someone else on the receiving end.