Google has setup the Family Safety Centre to help parents and teachers keep their children safe online. After spending a little time in the resource, it seems to be a good introduction to online safety for children from a parent’s point of view. If you need to know more, you can then take it further through some of the links.
The Centre has four main sections:
i) Google Safety Tools – information on Safesearch, which stops inappropriate material being returned in searches, and YouTube Safety Mode, which similarly stops age-restricted videos from appearing.
ii) Advice from partners – information from children’s organisations on cyberbullying, privacy, talking to strangers online, adult content and malware.
iii) Reporting abuse – if you find inappropriate material on any of Google’s properties (YouTube, Buzz, Picasa, Blogger), here’s how to flag the material to Google.
iv) Video tips from Google parents – a set of videos on YouTube from parents to parents. In this section there’s also six basic tips for on-line safety. Frankly, I think these tips should be more prominent as they’re good.
– Keep computers in a central place
– Know where your children go online
– Teach internet safety
– Help prevent viruses
– Teach your children to communicate responsibly
– View all content critically
Each country has its own slight variant, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US and UK versions – there are probably others for non-English speakers. The main difference seems to be the list of partner organisations that Google has worked with (and spelling).
If you are a parent, you should spend a few minutes having a read of the information here.