Keeping our kids safe online

internet safety

This week we received confirmation of Gemma’s high school place. High school! How on earth did that happen?

With this comes a huge school uniform bill, a brand new walk to school (on her own!) and a new worry about internet safety. I know that as she heads of to high school and gets older, the internet will become more of an influence in her life. One the one hand, that’s great – there is a whole world of information out there for her to discover. On the other hand though, it worries me. With that whole world of information comes a whole world of potential danger, especially on social media sites.

A recent European study of 5040 children aged 10-15 conducted by global cyber security company, Kaspersky, discovered some alarming stats about how children are using the internet, and how they may not be protecting themselves as they should.
 
Over two thirds of the children said they had heard bad language on the internet, while a third said they had witnessed violence online, with a quarter saying they had viewed pornography online.
One in five children admitted their parents set no rules about how they used the internet at home and two-thirds of the respondents said they would know how to hide something from their parents that they were looking at online. This video from Kaspersky shows just how internet savvy our kids are.
 
Isn’t that just TERRIFYING?
 
We have had brief internet safety chats with the children before, and I know that the school focus on it regularly too, but it is obvious that there are still problems out there. It shows that before Gemma starts high school, we need to be having a slightly more in depth talk with her, about the dangers, about how to stay safe, and about how we are ALWAYS here for her to talk to if she is scared or confused. Kaspersky Safe Kids is a downloadable app which helps you protect your children in a digital world, on their iPhones, iPads, Macs and Computers. For just £14.99 for a year’s subscription you can stay connected with your kids and be sure they are in a safe place – this is definitely something we will be looking into. 
 
The internet is a fantastic tool, and we are lucky to have it. Used in the right way it can open up so many doors. But used incorrectly, it can be so dangerous – and it is important our kids know that.
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