Thursday 24 March 2016
With the internet playing an ever-growing role in children’s lives, parents and carers play a vital part in ensuring children know how to stay safe online. Here at the NFA, the safety of our foster children is paramount and we want to make sure our carers take every step possible to ensure children in care are safe whilst browsing the internet.
At the start of October, OFCOM released statistics around children’s usage of the internet. According to the study, 93% of all 5-15 year olds used the internet in 2013, with 12-15 year olds spending as much time on the internet as watching television. In 2013, 57% of parents whose children use the internet at home had no parental controls installed on the device they use to access the internet. More concerning are statistics around children accessing harmful or worrying content online. In a recent survey by the NSPCC, more than 1 in 10 children stated that they had been bothered or upset by something they found online in the past year and 11% of UK children have encountered sexual images on the internet.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) is a great resource for parents when looking to keep their children safe online. The CEOP have prepared guidelines for foster parents which we’d like to share with our foster carers, and so have created a series of articles around the issue, so be sure to check our blog section regularly for new, informative articles.