Tiscali: Protect Children Online

The internet is an invaluable resource for all of us, children included. However, the internet also presents children with dangers they are ill-equipped to handle. What can you do to ensure your childrens safety online?

Read on for our top 10 tips on protecting children online.

Protect kids online - Top 10 tips

How Tiscali can help protect your kids online

Ensuring your child's safety is your responsibility as a parent or gaurdian. What you can do, is up to you. The most important thing is to avoid scaremongering. The internet has a lot to offer our children.

In that spirit, it was announced today (29 September 2008) that the the UK Council for Child Internet Safety will monitor the web for offensive content accessible by children. It will order that sites illegally encouraging suicide or harmful behaviour are taken down.

The Council has also drawn up a voluntary code of conduct, under which websites can promise to root out violent or pornographic content within a set deadline and be vigilant in preventing bullying on message boards.

That does not mean that Parents and Guardians no longer need to define what acceptable internet use constitutes and what is accepted and understood by all the family. Boundaries serve a purpose.

What to Watch out for

Know what your children are doing online and who they are talking to. Ask them to teach you to use any applications you have never used.

Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends - personal information includes their messenger id, email address, mobile number and any pictures of themselves, their family or friends - if your child publishes a picture or video online - anyone can change it or share it.

If your child receives spam / junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them.

It's not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they don't know. They won't know what they contain - it could be a virus, or worse - an inappropriate image or film.

Help your child to understand that some people lie online and that therefore it's better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust.

Always keep communication open for a child to know that it's never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.

Teach young people how to block someone online and report them if they feel uncomfortable.

Childrens' natural curiousity means that they will roam, play and investigate. This is healthy and good. But be aware of what they are doing. Read on for our top 10 tips.

Protect kids online - Top 10 tips

How Tiscali can help protect your kids online

The problem of child grooming by abusers online keeps growing. Tiscali Child Protection from Crisp can help by monitoring more than 200 factors in Instant Messenger comunication and Social Network interactions between your child and their correspondents. Find out how you can help keep your kids safer online.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the only authorised organisation in the UK operating an internet hotline for the public to report their exposure to potentially illegal content online. As a funding member of the IWF, Tiscali supports their aim to minimise the availability of potentially illegal internet content. Find out how you can help report illegal online content.

How Tiscali can help protect your children online

Text speak acronyms translated

Common web terms explained

Tiscali Security Centre