In this article, we’re sharing advice on building trust and open communication about online safety with your child.

The internet can be a great educational tool for children, but it also has hidden dangers. In 2023, criminals use the digital world for everything from grooming to importing controlled drugs, making it a potential minefield for kids. In this article, we’re looking at ways of building trust and open communication about online safety with your child.

What are Some of the Online Dangers for Children?

84% of parents say that they worry about their children using the internet – and for good reason. In this section, we’re going to be looking at some of the potential dangers for children when using the internet:

Grooming – Child sex offenders will often use the internet to find potential victims. In some cases, they will even pose as a child on social media in order to start a conversation with kids and to build a relationship before meeting in real life.

Bullying – The internet offers the opportunity for bullying without the fear of consequences, and this can corrode a child’s confidence and mental health.

Harmful content – When online a child can potentially access harmful content such as pornography, drugs and, as was the tragic case of Molly Russell.

kid waving at pc — Credit – Julia M Cameron, Pexels

How to Build Trust and Open Communication

Take Control

Your first defence when it comes to online safety is to make use of the many parental controls available. These can help by limiting the type of sites that your child can access as well as allowing you to set timers to limit how long your child is actually spending online.

It’s a really good idea to familiarise yourself with all of the controls available and to have a conversation with your child about why you are setting particular ones.

Educate

Many people find it helpful to educate their kids about online safety by setting a quiz to ascertain what their perception of certain things online are. This can include questions such as ‘What would you do if a stranger sent you a friend request’ and ‘Have you ever seen something online that you didn’t understand or made you feel uncomfortable’.

When done right, this can be a fun and informal way of introducing online safety to your child and to form the building blocks of an open dialogue about everything from sex and drugs to inappropriate content. Often parents will be surprised by their child’s depth of knowledge, and this is a good way of seeing how much they know as well as being able to correct any misconceptions.

Shadowy figure using PC — Credit – Nikita Belokhonov, Pexels

Building Trust

When it comes to internet safety discussions, there’s a fine line between educating and scaring your child. While we’d all like our kids to remain innocent for as long as possible, the sad truth is that harmful content is out there – and they do need to know about it.

To begin with, you could try asking your child if they have seen news stories, or heard things in school about bad things happening to a child on the internet. You can then ask how they feel about that and if they worry about it. This can then be followed by assurance that you will both work together to make sure that they are kept safe.

This can lead quite naturally to a conversation about trust. Explain to your child that the internet is a good thing and that you trust them to use it responsibly. You should also encourage your child to talk to you if they are shown harmful content by somebody else, for example a friend at school, and to explain that this isn’t ‘telling tales’.

Building trust works both ways and so it’s important that your child doesn’t feel interrogated or spied on. Instead, normalise the processes of online safety and reward responsible behaviour as well as continuously encouraging open communication.

Online Safety and Kids

In 2023, child safety is more complicated than ever before, and it can be tempting to become overly stringent about internet use. While this is natural, it is impractical and will often have the opposite of the desired effect as children will simply find other, more secret ways of accessing sites such as social media.

Instead, communication is key to online safety as is educating your child on the fact that, on social media, not everybody is as they seem. Teaching your child to recognise red flags such as friend requests from strangers or requests from somebody from a different town can help to give them the tools that they need to contribute to their own safety.

If you are concerned that your child has been contacted inappropriately online, it’s always a good idea to contact either your local police station or a solicitor to help keep your child safe on the world wide web.

Building Trust and Open Communication About Online Safety with Your Child