Child internet safety Internet safety for kids under 10
Only give young kids access to safe sites such as Glubble
Under-5s
At this age, most children need help using the computer. Helen Penn, Head of Education at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, says ‘Our experience is that under-5s aren’t using interactive sites.
‘They tend to be playing around on cartoon sites like CBeebies and can’t generally do that without the assistance of their parents, although that may change.’
Software and websites designed for this age group is usually called ‘lapware’. When toddlers are old enough to click around a website by themselves, it’s best to only give them access to certain safe sites or tools such as Glubble.
5-7 years
Children will begin to be taught about internet safety as soon as they start school. The fun Hector’s World cartoon series may have already been shown at your child’s school.
‘Kids are quite excited by the characters and can relate to the decisions they are making,’ Penn says.
Parents can also download the Hector’s World Safety Button (for Windows), which children can click if they ever drift off to a site that’s inappropriate, and start panicking.
‘The idea is they’ll click on Hector the dolphin, and an underwater scene appears that blocks off the content and encourages the child to get their parent,’ Penn explains. ‘The content is kept underneath so the parent can see what it does.’
8-10 years
At this age, children may start using social networking sites such as Bebo, MySpace or Facebook, despite the fact that these sites are designed for ages 13 and older.
‘We know [younger children] are using these sites, so not mentioning them would be wrong of us. They know they’re for over-13s, but it’s very difficult to verify their ages. Therefore we have to make sure they are educated about how to use them properly,’ says Penn.
Thinking about who you are talking to and the information you reveal about yourself are two of the key messages about how children can stay in control when they’re online. Their online use will grow at this stage, and there will be greater exploration of the web.
