5 Tips to Keep Children Safe Online

Internet Safety Tips for Foster Parents 

1. Open communicationand ground rules 

One of the best tools at your disposal for keeping children safe when using the internet is to encourage open communication, so that they feel they can come to you with any concerns they may have.  

Having ground rules about when, where, and how to use devices will be helpful. Encourage them to use any devices in a communal area so that use of the internet or social media can be safely monitored. Discuss where devices will stay during nighttime and try to keep these in a communal area, too. 

It’s important to have an open and honest conversation to make them aware of their digital footprint. Anything they post publicly online will be available for anyone to see for a long period of time, so motivate them to think twice before sharing anything personal and ensure that they’re using privacy settings to protect themselves. 

2. Teach them to becautious 

It can be really easy to find and meet new friends in a virtual world, either through websites, social media, or games. But as a foster parent, you’ll want to encourage some basic internet safety to keep your children safe online. 

Discuss with your children that not everyone they meet online will be who they say they are. They could be using photos of someone else or images that have been created using AI to pretend to be someone else, or even AI software to create a realistic-looking filter of someone else entirely when appearing on video chats. 

Discourage them from sharing too much personal information with people they haven’t met, such as photos, addresses, or passwords. It’s always good to make friends, but we should still be wary of sharing too much personal information with them.  

It’s also important to ask permission before sharing photos of real-life friends, too. 

3. Encourage responsible use of AI

Artificial intelligence has become increasingly popular in recent years, with some children using tools to help them complete homework or even just to play around with. While this can be a great tool for all of us, it’s crucial that we learn to use it responsibly. 

Instead of outright banning the use of AI, discuss with your children how to stay safe while using it. Advise against sharing any personal details, encourage them not to rely on it for absolutely everything, and deter them from secretly using it to finish homework. While that may seem like the easy option in the moment, it’ll mean they have a tougher time learning as they progress through school when topics get more in-depth. 

Discuss with your children that AI isn’t always a reliable source of information. It can sometimes present information about a topic that isn’t correct. Show them what to look out for on devices and websites to see how AI is being used. 

4. Discuss safe use of social media

If your child is old enough to make use of social media, then it’s important to have an open and honest conversation with them about the stuff they choose to share online and how they use these accounts. 

As we’ve briefly touched on above, privacy settings will be the number one thing to encourage. This can prevent people they don’t know from looking at the content they post online, as well as interacting with them. Anything that they do post publicly, such as names and locations, can be traced back to them.  

Remind them never to add or accept friend requests from people they don’t know, either. You can also show them what to look for if someone is impersonating someone they know, too. 

It can be fun to share photos and video content that they’ve created with family and friends. But as we’ve mentioned above, it’ll be important for them to ask permission first before sharing photos of others. It’s good to be mindful of how the other person would feel if it was shared against their wishes. 

If they see something that makes them uncomfortable or that is unsuitable, foster an open and honest environment with your children so that they feel like they can come to you to discuss it. They can also report or block unwanted content they come across. 

5. Use parentalcontrol tools 

For younger children, using parental tools can help to improve their online safety. These are offered across all Windows and Mac computers, iOS and Android phones and tablets, as well as gaming consoles. You can use these parental tools to block any unsuitable adult content and set a time limit for how long they can use the devices for to prevent endless doomscrolling. 

For game consoles, you can set time limits, turn off in-game purchases and chat functions, while also restricting the games your children have access to based on their age. Apple devices also have a range of features that you can use for this, too. You can set content and privacy restrictions on your child’s device, prevent any unwanted purchases, and choose which apps they can and can’t download. 

While these tools are useful, they won’t be the whole solution for keeping children safe online. Explain to your foster children that you’re setting up these parental controls so that they can stay safe and that they can always talk to you about why certain settings are set up. Some of these can always change as they grow up, but this should only be at a pace which you deem appropriate for their age.