How do you start a conversation with your kids about internet safety? £200 voucher to be won

[CeriMumsnet]

Online safety can feel like a challenge for parents, but if it’s something you find difficult to talk to your children about, you’re not alone. We’d like to hear from you about your experiences starting conversations about online safety with your children. Have you managed to have constructive discussions with your children? Were there any helpful tools or resources you used? What challenges did you face, and what advice would you give other parents who are unsure about how to start a conversation with their children?

• Share your advice and experiences about starting conversations with your children around online safety.
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher
• Don’t forget to vote in our poll below

We know it can be difficult for parents to have conversations about online safety and mealtimes are a moment where quality conversations can take place. This is why Tesco Mobile has partnered with The Café and child psychologist Dr Martha Deiros Collado to make mealtimes even more meaningful. Working with online safety experts, Internet Matters, Tesco Mobile has created a series of helpful conversation starters to help you start the discussion about being safe online with your children.

Here’s Tesco Mobile CTO Sally Marriott has to say:

"As parents, we’re constantly navigating new challenges, and keeping children safe online is one of the most pressing. We’ve created these conversation starters with the aim of making these tough topics approachable for families. Parents can easily access our conversation starters by searching ‘Tesco Mobile Online Safety’ or by scanning the QR code on ‘table talkers’ in The Café, found in 322 Tesco stores across Great Britain & Northern Ireland.”

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ
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I have spoken to mine about mobile phone use - as they are wanting snapchat (not a clue how that works) and Whatsapp - they seem to be more savvy than I expected about not engaging with strangers, and to come to me if you have any worries and I will always help and listen.

At 11 when my DS had a mobile phone - i asked the store (tesco) to set controls so they could not download, and had the app so I can track their use - I have spoken them about trusting them to be sensible, and if the trust is broken on it's use then there will be consequences. They seem very savvy about strangers and chatroom for on-line games.

For me it's as and when it comes up - if there's a story on the news about Instagram or cyberbullying, or identity theft - I will think of a way of making it age approriate and start a conversation about what they know and feel about the story and what they would do to keep themselves safe when using the internet whether it be mobile phone or tablet.

When it comes up - although when I have had a conversation with my eldest who has a mobile and plays PS5 on-line - they are a lot more clued up than me - and I have high parental settings which cannot be changed as I have admin over these-

For me it's as and when it comes up - although I do my research into how to describe the methods trolls, and scammers use, and how to help prevent this in terms of passwords not being names and numbers not being your DOB, clicking on links and being savvy on who the sender of the email would be - I need to gen up on gaming chatrooms and Xbox/PS5 settings for privacy.

I try to discuss it as it come up - so when they have an IT lesson at school I ask them what they've learned. If I see them on their phones I'll ask them what they're doing and who with - and ask who they wouldn't play with online and what they wouldn't do. If there's a story inthe news - like tik tok being banned in the USA- we talk about that. Unfortunately there's been some unsafe online stuff going on in their year group which the school has written to parents about so we talk about that as real life examples.

And I check their phones all the time!

I'd recommend a book like this to speak to young children about using the internet.

As and when. I also do my research to help them find good quality apps and content. I use common sense media to get an overview of anything before I allow it on the tablets.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this discussion. The winner of the prize draw is @youareonlyhereonce - congratulations!