Parents are being offered advice and support to ensure their children keep safe, as they spend more time online during COVID-19.
As families stay at home there are concerns children and young people may be vulnerable to online exploitation.
The government has shared a number of online resources for parents to help them speak to their children and ensure they are staying safe while accessing social media and websites.
- Internet matters (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online which offers age-specific advice)
- Parent info (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online) – contains a host of information on games, safety and settings relationships, sex and health and wellbeing.
- Net-aware (support for parents and carers from the NSPCC)
We have joined with Wiltshire Police to ask parents or carers to be extra vigilant of what their children are doing online and who they are talking to. If any member of the public has concerns about online exploitation (ie communication with a child in order to commit a sexual offence), they should report them to police or to their partners: Childline on 0800 1111 or NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.