Online safety advice and insights for Safer Internet Day 2023

This Safer Internet Day, we’re sharing our online safety resources with parents and carers.

Our information and advice will help you and your family keep safe online, covering topics such as:

social media
online gaming
parental controls
sharing nudes
online reporting.

There are also family resources, including a word search, quiz and family agreement, to help you have conversations with your children.

We’ve also developed an easy-to-remember guide to help you start the conversation with your children about their online lives, using GAME:

G – get to know the platform

A – ask open questions

M – master the basics together

E – explore privacy and safety settings.

Kate Edwards, NSPCC Associate Head for Child Safety Online, said:

“Having regular conversations with your children about their online lives is one of the best ways to help keep them safe.

“Although the internet is brilliant tool, it also poses risks, and your child might experience or see something online that worries or upsets them.

“Talking to them about their online life as part of regular conversations will reassure them that they can open up to you for support if something concerning has happened online and that you are there to support them.

“We know starting these conversations can sometimes feel tricky and we also know that the online world can feel very overwhelming, so the NSPCC has developed lots of advice and support to help parents navigate this.”

Help and support for children

Childline’s trained counsellors know first-hand how tricky it can be for some children to speak out about experiencing something online that’s upset them.

Some might be worried about getting into trouble while others might be concerned about upsetting their parents. Feeling helpless is another common response, with children thinking nothing can be done to help them.

Childline is here to help children and young people who’ve had an upsetting experience online. They can get in touch on the phone on 0800 1111 to speak with a counsellor confidentially, or access 121 support online at childline.org.uk

The website also has advice on online safety such as online gaming, cyberbullying, sexting and feeling good on social media.

Childline also has a Report Remove tool. Any young person under the age of 18 who’s had a nude image of them shared online can use the tool to help them get it removed.

Making things safer for young people

Online sex crimes against children are a growing problem.

Police-recorded data shows that every month, more than 3,500 take place against children. There were more than 42,503 crimes of this type from April 2021 to March 2022. This compares to 3,706 ten years ago.

To tackle this issue, we’re supporting the Online Safety Bill, which is currently going through the House of Lords.

The Bill will bring in tougher rules for online platforms, making them do more to tackle child abuse and keep children safe.

What is Safer Internet Day?

This annual event promotes the importance of safe and positive digital technology use for children and young people. It’s run by the UK Safer Internet Centre and this year’s theme is ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online.’

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Online safety advice and insights for Safer Internet Day 2023

Help and support for children

Making things safer for young people

What is Safer Internet Day?

Press office

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