Advice by age:

Younger children need different advice and guidance than older children. Older children need different advice and guidance than teens. It can be really difficult keeping up with everything that is online and what risks and issues may affect children of different ages, so on these pages there is some age-related advice and guidance for parents and carers:

Pre-school – https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/0-5/
6 – 10 year olds – https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/6-10/
11 – 13 year olds – https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/11-13/
14 plus – https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/14plus/

Setting up devices:
It can be difficult knowing all the different settings that are available on different devices to help protect children, this includes allowing or disallowing chat, friends, spending money, content filters and much more. On these pages you will find the details, as well as non-technical instructions, which will help you understand what is available to you and how to set up your child’s devices.

Gaming consoles and devices – https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/gaming-consoles/
Smartphones – https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/smartphones-and-other-devices/
Broadband and mobile networks – https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/broadband-mobile/
Entertainment and search engines – https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/entertainment-search-engines/

Safety/privacy settings on social media:
Whilst the mainstream social media apps require those signing up to be 13+ and we recommend that children under 13 do not use mainstream social media, many children and young people are using social media. It is therefore important to understand what features are available to you to help protect your children. This is also important because for the most part, all privacy settings are default off when a new account is created, but also because some social media providers change their features quite frequently, e.g. TikTok.
Take a look at this link to see what is available to you and how to set up your child’s social media. We would also advise doing this with your child so that you can discuss the features together.

https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/social-media/
There are a few apps out there for those younger children. However the challenge is that, given children primarily use social to message their friends, if their friends aren’t on the app then the children won’t use it. It’s a real dilemma but it is worth letting parents know that there are alternatives out there, which you can find HERE.

Useful new features on YouTube and YouTube Kids
YouTube is hugely popular with all age groups but historically parents haven’t had a lot of control over what their children can/cannot watch. But things have changed and YouTube now gives parents a greater degree of control. It isn’t perfect but it is a step in the right direction. Take a look at the page below where you will see a few short videos of newer features that can help you on YouTube and YouTube Kids.

https://www.esafety-adviser.com/youtube-parental-restrictions/

Gaming

Finding good games, as well as knowing what is appropriate for the age of the child isn’t easy, particularly when there can be lots of peer pressure to play the more popular games which are not always appropriate. Taming Gaming is a great resource for parents to find new games for children as well as lots of advice about content, suitability etc.

https://www.taminggaming.com/