Online safety for your family

We work with schools and educational settings to help children, staff and parents to understand online risks and how to manage them.

Staying safe online for parents and children (PDF, 1.4 MB).

The Kent Online Safety Group provides guidance and assistance for those within educational settings.

Social media

Social media allows users to share their ideas, thoughts, photographs and memories online to their friends, family and others. A user's profile can be private, where they choose who can view their updates or can be made public. They can be accessed on a computer, tablet or a mobile phone.

Popular social media apps are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Although social media is a great way to share highlights of your life, users must always be aware and understand the risks when updating their profiles.

Mobile phone safety

Children can access the internet using smartphones and tablets, go to the Internet Matters website to get information about setting up parental controls on smartphones and other devices.

If you or your child have received a text scam, you can report this to Ofcom by forwarding it to '7726' (which spells out SPAM).

Useful websites

We recommend the nationally-acclaimed Thinkuknow website which has information for children, teenagers, parents and teachers. You can report illegal or inappropriate online behaviour through the 'report abuse' button.

There are many websites you can visit for additional support.

• Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) use the report abuse button for advice and to report online abuse such as grooming.
• Childnet International is a non-profit organisation working with others to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
• Get safe online provides practical advice on how to protect yourself, your computers and mobile devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and other problems encountered online.
• Internet Matters is an independent, not-for-profit organisation to help parents keep their children safe online.
• Internet Watch Foundation find out how report illegal content online.
• NSPCC online safety read helpful advice and tools you can use to keep your children safe online.
• NSPCC online safety for children with special educational needs and disabilities read helpful advice for parents.
• UK Safer Internet Centre download tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet.