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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

Useful resources for Parents and Carers

11 January 2018

Most social media platforms have a minimum age limit of
13, but research shows a growing number of children
aged under 13 are using social media, with 3 in 4 children
aged 10-12 having their own accounts.
While much is known about how teenagers use social
media, this research provides the missing piece to the
story, exploring the social media lives of children before
they reach the teenage years. In October and November
2017, we conducted 8 focus groups with 32 children
aged 8-12 to understand the impact of social media on
the wellbeing of this age group.

Read the report

21 December 2017

Don't wrap your device yet!

First things first - set it up. Don't wait until Christmas day. If you have games consoles, do yourself a favour and do the updates first. Plug it in and set them it on the home wifi before Christmas day. Often consoles do a huge update when first turned on and user accounts need to be created. On Christmas day you wont have time as the beers, wine will be ready to drink and the turkey will need attention.

When you set up any devices you will want to manage content (the stuff that you don't want the kids to see), spending, screen time and also see some degree of reporting of their activity.

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12 December 2017

Professionals Guidance Digital Romance
Digital Romance was led by researchers Dr Ester McGeeney (Brook) and Dr Elly Hanson (NCA-CEOP), the research took place between January and May 2017 and used a mixed methods approach involving an online survey, in person focus groups and one-to-one interviews.

The project was motivated by the desire to evolve online safety education by providing an in-depth insight into young people’s views and experiences. The project was influenced by US research conducted by the PEW Research Centre (Lenhart, Smith & Anderson, 2015) that explored the digital romantic practices of young Americans. Arguably, up until now, much of the focus of online safety work has been narrow – exploring the risks of online communication such as the unsafe sharing of personal details, the loss of control of material (especially images), and the facilitation of abusive and bullying behaviours. At times this approach has been at the expense of acknowledging the positive role of digital technology in young people’s lives and the complicated ways in which young people experience and negotiate risk.

Read the report

16 November 2017

It’s Anti-Bullying Week and the Duke of Cambridge has launched a nationwide action plan to tackle cyberbullying, supported by the UK’s largest media and technology firms including BT.

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20 October 2017

The following information was accurate at the time of writing. (19 October 2017)

A purported social media challenge, labelled the ‘48 hour missing challenge’, has been reported on by some media, however the UK Safer Internet Centre is not currently aware of any evidence to directly link disappearances with an online challenge.

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