Online safety for young people

Parental controls let parents restrict some content and features on devices that children use. Features and content that should be restricted are up to individual parents and carers to decide. It could be based on one or more things including:

• age
• ability
• beliefs
• family values

Parental controls can allow you to set limits when a child is using a device. These limits could be:

• Hours spent on a device or online in a day
• Content filters
• Blockers for apps that have inappropriate content

These parental controls be set at various levels and devices including:

• Home networks and WIFI
• Games consoles
• Mobile phones, tablets and computers/laptops
• Specific apps and online services
• Search engines

Remember as your child gets older you may want to update their parental controls to allow more access to certain things.

For more information on parental controls visit the NSPCC website.

Internet Matters has step-by-step instructions on how to set up parental controls on most mainstream services and devices. They have split this in to the following helpful categories:

• Smartphones and other devices
• Entertainment and search engines
• Broadband and mobile networks
• Social media
• Gaming consoles