CARE has issued helpful tips on internet safety for parents and called for strong measures to protect children from age-inappropriate content, as the UK marks Safer Internet Day 2023.

Tim Cairns, a policy expert at CARE, comments:

“We need to ensure that the internet is the safest place it can be. That is why at CARE we are working to ensure that the Online Safety Bill, currently before Parliament, contains provisions that stop kids from accessing websites that are age inappropriate.

“We want to see a law that ensures kids cannot access pornography or other harmful content. It is important that we ensure the online world is as safe for kids as we can possibly make it. But that safety starts with parents. Internet Safety Day is a good time to start talking to your children about the online world and any dangers they may encounter.”

Tips for parents

Safer Internet Day is a good time for parents to stop and think about what they can do to help keep their kids safe online.This year the theme is “want to talk about it?” and the aim is to help parents and their children to talk about life online and how digital space can be made better and safer. For many parents the online world is a mystery, but are there are practical ways every parent can help:

1. Talk to your kids - Ask them what are the things they like to do online? Ask them to tell you about their favourite apps and websites. It is also important to ask them how they feel. What makes them stressed online? What makes them feel bad? Speak to them about how they can work through those issues and avoid them.

2. Make rules – What content are they allowed to access? How can they get a balance between offline and online worlds? That may mean setting rules like no phones in the bedroom or only using a device at weekends. Make rules about who they can and cannot interact with.

3. Use resources – there are many free apps and classes that can help. Apple offers free parent awareness classes and all major phone companies, and operating systems offer free and effective tools to keep kids safe. It’s a matter of learning about them and using them.