Online safety for children

14.01.21

Cyber

The following information was issued by Police Scotland Safer Communities Cybercrime Harm Prevention Unit.

The internet is an amazing place for children to learn, create, have fun, game and communicate with friends, but they may occasionally have to deal with a variety of related challenging issues being online can bring and there are positive things you as a Parent or Carer can do to equip yourself to support your child or young person if they face such issues.

As a parent or carer, there is support there to enhance your children or young persons’ safety and security online, such as the links below, which are very informative, easy to follow and will also open up the opportunity for you to start the discussion about online safety.

Thinkuknow is the online safety education programme from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and their website has home activity packs from the ages of 4yrs to 14+yrs to take support from.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Support-tools/home-activity-worksheets/

CEOP, NSPCC and Internet Matters, at the links below, have created a number of fantastic free to use advice hubs to help you learn more to support you and your child or young person with Online issues.

https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/

As we are now in a new lockdown and education establishments are closed, our children and young people will be spending more time Online, so as a parent or carer please take time to enhance your knowledge in terms of the support that is available to protect your child or young person in the Online
world.

You can report suspicious emails by forwarding the original message to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) at [email protected]

If you receive a suspicious text you can forward this to 7726 which spells SPAM on your key pad.

If you have been a victim of crime, and it is not an ongoing emergency, you can report this to Police Scotland on 101. For all emergency calls, dial 999.