socialising online – talking points for children
Here are some areas of discussion with children, to help them avoid encountering someone who isn’t who they say they are.
- Never agree to meet up with anybody you meet online, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian
- Never give out personal information like your address, phone number, email address. Even details like what school you go to, or posting photos, can help people work out where you live.
- Use the controls and privacy features offered by many sites, to restrict your site and the ability to contact you to people you know in the real world.
- Avoid unmoderated chat rooms, and if you’re worried about anything, report it.
- Never share secrets with anyone online, especially if you don’t know them in the real world.
- Report any suspicious behaviour to the site moderator, or to CEOP, or the Virtual Global Taskforce. Some sites have a button to click, to report abuse.
- Trust your instincts – if anything feels creepy or strange, leave the site and tell a parent of guardian.
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making online chat safer
So, how can online socialising be made safer? On the Orange web portal, you’ll find services such as Orange Chat and other Orange adult services. These warn the user on entry and require under-18s to declare they are aged 18 or over before they can use the service. Take a look at how to protect yourself using Orange chat, and click here to see the Orange chat moderation policy
socialising online – dangers
One of the main threats posed by socialising online is anonymity. There are no rules demanding that anyone must be who they say they are. People often leave messages under usernames rather than their own names, for example. But people can go further, disguising their age, sex, appearance and interests. These deceptions may be impossible to detect.
social networking sites
The last couple of years have seen an innovation on the internet called ‘social networking’ or web 2.0. This allows people to publish their own sites quickly and easily, and to post images and recordings onto the internet for anyone to view.
where to next?
The Department for Education and Skills has a helpful section on web safety.
For more information on IT security, take a look at the National Children’s Home website, or find other useful information here.
The charity Childnet has produced a useful site.
You can find the site of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre here.
The Virtual Global Taskforce is a liaison project concentrating on safer internet operations between police forces in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
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a guide for parents
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in the news
Networkers in growing danger of identity theft
Experts are warning internet users to be more careful with their private information after secret code from the popular social-networking site Facebook was published on the internet. Read on (The Guardian)
Keep track of your kids on MySpace and Facebook
When my daughter was twelve she started using MySpace, one of the most popular of the social network sites that have attracted millions of teenage users around the world. Read on (BBC Webwise)
Millions of Facebook users ‘leave themselves open to identity theft’
Millions of members of the social networking site Facebook are allowing strangers access to their personal information, making them vulnerable to identity theft on the internet. Read on (Times Online)
