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Parental controls are also available to be set up on a wide range of other devices such as Games consoles, Media Hubs, Smart home devices such as Amazon Echo and PC operating systems. You typically access these in a similar fashion to those above, first going in to account or device settings, then parental controls and finally setting your restrictions. It is important to consider all devices that your child might access within your home, not just their own tablet etc. Think carefully about how much access you want to give them to your smart devices too, such as a voice controlled assistant (e.g. Google’s Alexa).

It is also important to set up the safe search function, available on most search engines. These are used by children as their principle way to find information for homework etc. It can be extremely disturbing for children when they put in what seems to be an innocent search term and the results are anything but innocent. Setting up a safe search can be done quite simply - for example, it is very easy on Google Chrome. When Google is open in the web browser, you will see a menu in the top right of the window. When you open this menu, you should see an option for settings, such as a cog symbol, but it depends which browser you are using and the version. Within the settings menu you should then be able to find an option to enable safe search and filter explicit results. Make sure you save the settings changes to enable the protection. This will stop your child from accidentally seeing inappropriate results when they are searching online. It will also limit your older children from accessing websites that they shouldn’t be on, when they get curious and begin to explore.

You can go one step further and set up parental controls on the individual apps that are downloaded on the device. This is particularly useful if children of multiple ages are using one device, and you cannot make sure that the only apps downloaded are suitable for a particular age range. The method to do this will depend on the app, but you can often find instructions online.

If your child is old enough, and you are confident that they know about the dangers of social media, they may have these social media apps on their devices. However, even if you trust them to be responsible, it is really important to check their profile and privacy settings with them regularly. Often changes are made to the configuration of these apps and they are not always made obvious to the user. For example, Facebook recently added a section on Facial Recognition to their settings menu, so that it automatically recognises your child’s face. This wasn’t very well publicised and many people do not know it is there. You should also be aware that one of the biggest risks to children on social media is the threat of paedophiles. They can set up a profile and pretend to be anyone using these apps - this is one of the most common methods of grooming today. Children are naturally more trusting than adults, and that is easy to exploit. Remember, people aren’t always who they say they are – especially online!

Location services are something to be wary of and it is a good idea to ensure that these are disabled on all devices, or even just turned off when they are not needed. If not, your child may be unintentionally sharing their location through their apps or photo posts. For example, apps that track your running routes often post out their data showing strangers information on your child’s location. Ensure you set aside time to show your child how to turn this off and on again on their particular device and explain the risks to them. Many parents do decide to download a tracking app to be able to find out where their children are when then go out with their friends etc. There are a few of these available, but it is important that you discuss the importance of this with your child and listen to what they have to say about it.

It is also recommended that parents help children to manage their screen time, as it is often not something they can do easily on their own. The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health guidelines published in January 2019 suggested that parents approach screen time “based on the child’s developmental age, the individual need and value the family place on positive activities such as socialising, exercise and sleep.” This means that it is important to focus on context and content of screen time, rather than simply setting children a specified time period. However, setting time periods can be useful, especially as younger children find it difficult to self-regulate their online time.

By setting automatic time limits on the devices, it also saves parents from having to keep track of individual use of devices, which is really handy when you have more than one child and multiple devices. This can be done on something like an iPad/iPhone through the settings menu and is known as Guided Access. With this you can set time limits and alerts for when they are coming to the end of their allotted time. There is also a screen time tool which allows you to keep track of the amount of time being spent on these devices each day. There are several online videos that show you where to find these if you need more guidance.

By Emma Davis - Head of Testing & Training