Welcome Parents
This page has been created to offer information to support parenting in a digital age.
Presentation from 6th December 2018
Basic advice for parents:
- set clear expectations on the time your child spends online, there are many templates for family agreements including these ones from Common Sense Media.
- discuss the use of digital devices with your child, not just as a one-off, but as an on-going conversation. Putting up barriers to technology and social networking is not a solution long term, so take an interest in their activities online as you would their real world experiences.
- sign-up for newsletters from organisations like Common Sense Media (below) and read the parent guides below
- initially, have the computer in a public place, don’t let your child have the computer in the bedroom or take it to bed at night. A communal “charging area” where all devices go at night is a good idea.
- subscribe to the common sense media weekly email to be kept informed of their latest publications for parents.
Common Sense regularly publishes numerous articles about Digital Media and Digital Citizenship issues. This is a great resource for families; including information about games, websites, movies, and other general advice. They also have published a Back to School guide and these great resources & they have a new specific parent section. Please subscribe to their weekly email to be kept informed of their latest publications.
The Family online Safety Institute is another great site that offers helpful advice for parenting in the digital age. They have lots of helpful videos and advice to keep you upto date on the latest technology and networks that your children may be using. 
iKeepSafe Parent Resources Great advice and resources around the safe use of the internet for children.Restrictions and Parent Control / Monitoring.
Please read the general advice above before reading this section.Restrictions and software to monitor your child's online activity can potentially be bypassed by a tech-savvy child.
Here are a couple of guides that can support you with restricting and monitoring your child's onilne activity.
Remember:
- Don't give your passwords to your child.
- If you do put website filtering your child's laptop, this will restrict sites that are inoffensive in addition to ones that are offensive.
- Make sure you have an admin account on your child's laptop
Click here to view the parental controls guide for iOS (iPhone / iPad)
Click here to view the parental controls guide for android devices
Whatever device your using, remember you can always search "parental controls" then the name of your device on google, there is likely a youtube video on how to manage it.
Whatever device your using, remember you can always search "parental controls" then the name of your device on google, there is likely a youtube video on how to manage it.
Designed to teach parents how to help their teens strengthen their privacy and safety on Facebook, the guide features important topics such as risks involved in social networking, how to parent Facebook users, managing reputation in the digital age, managing your privacy on Facebook, reporting problems and more. The guide will also be translated into other languages such as Arabic and distributed internationally http://www.connectsafely.org/pdfs/fbparents.pdf
A Modern Parenting Guide to Video Games
Follow the links above and below to access free guide for parents.
A Parents guide to Fortnight
A parents guide to Twitter
Parent information about Instagram
