Keep kids safe on the net - Safer Internet Day

Many of you will have seen the recent MyDaughter online poll which asked the question ‘How safe do you think your daughter is online?’ The results reveal that whilst 57% of parents who took part were aware of their child’s online activity, a worrying 43% were not entirely sure of what their child gets up to online or how safe they are.

Today on Safer Internet Day experts are urging parents to discuss with their children how to keep safe online and the possible dangers of the internet.

MyDaughter expert Louise Robinson, head of Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School in Crosby said, ‘The poll shows that there is still a frightening number of parents out there who are not only in the dark about what their daughter does online but also have limited understanding of what they need to do to teach them how to stay safe. Knowledge really is of key importance here and this week is all about raising awareness amongst children and their mums and dads.’

Louise continues, ‘Any family who owns a computer and has access to the internet should have a basic understanding of the ‘dos and don’ts’. We advise parents to do the following:

• try to have the computer in a family room
• be aware if your daughter becomes secretive on the computer
• be aware of the privacy settings on social network sites (Facebook, Bebo etc)
• make sure you know how to look at the history page for websites

‘The internet is an amazing tool and an integral part of our children’s lives for both learning and communicating but realistically there are potential dangers. Following simple rules can make a huge difference and turn the internet from being an unknown, negative source into the fantastic tool that it is.’

For more advice on protecting your daughter online read our related articles:

Heads’ Tips – internet safety

Protecting and supervising your daughter on the internet

Understanding Facebook

When the virtual world meets the real world