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The internet is constantly evolving with each new trend bringing a new threat into children’s digital lives – it can be difficult to stay up to date with the latest e-safety advice, especially if you’re already stretched creating lesson plans or homeschooling. But kids manage to stay up to date with the platforms and trends – so why not help enable them to teach themselves about the latest e-safety tips alongside the trends? Not only can this help them understand how to stay safe, it will also allow them to understand why they need to stay safe online.

Now that children are once again staying at home and using the internet for homeschooling and keeping in touch with their friends, we need to ensure that they are safer online than they were during the previous lockdowns.

Roblox is a popular gaming platform where (primarily) children can create their own games and come ‘together through play’. Players can interact with each other’s avatars and use the chat feature to have conversations with friends. At first glance, it’s a wonderful platform where children can communicate with each other and have fun online. However, despite the safety measures the platform has put in place, Roblox isn’t always safe for kids.

With how easy it is for anyone (literally, anyone!) to create a fake social media or gaming account online, it’s important that children know how to tell these fakes from real people online.

We thought it would be useful to look how we can keep kids safe from the threats they face online during this lockdown

We all know that there are threats facing children online and whether you’re a parent, carer, teacher or local authority worker you want to make sure they’re as safe as possible. But is tracking a kid’s online activity the best way to protect them?

Some popular social media and online gaming platforms ask for a user’s age to determine what content and features are appropriate for them. This is a great start but without a way for these platforms to verify that the age provided is true or that the user is a real child, children are still at risk. Anyone (both children and predators) can create an account and provide false personal details…

There are a number of threats online that children may encounter and while there are various parental controls and other technology solutions out there, children who are tech-savvy often find ways to get around the protection you put in place if it gets them what they want in a faster way. Regardless of what protections you’ve put in place at home or at school, a key part of keeping children safe online is ensuring that they take their own safety as seriously as you do.

While parental controls give you some peace of mind about your child’s internet usage – it’s important that you understand what some of the most common parental control solutions on the market can’t do, so that you can take steps to educate your children.

The e-safety policy in your school is a crucial part of your overall child protection policy. It needs to clearly set out how children will be safeguarded from online threats when using digital devices in a school environment, how incidents are reported and how they are ultimately handled to improve the protection you can offer pupils in the future.