Half of Parents Don't Monitor Kids Online
60% say they have no parental controls set up.
Almost half (44%) of parents in Yorkshire and Humberside don't monitor what their children are doing online. A survey's found 60% have no parental controls set up on their internet enabled devices either. 37% of parents surveyed by Internet Matters also said they let their kids use devices such as iPads and games consoles alone in their room. Last week the NSPCC revealed the findings of their investigation into the top apps and social networking sites, rated by kids. A panel of 500 parents found all of those aimed at adults and older teenagers were too easy for under-13s to sign up to. Three quarters said they found sexual, violent, or other inappropriate content on the sites. Carolyn Bunting, general manager of Internet Matters, a not-for-profit child safety organisation, told us 35% of the parents they spoke to, had no idea how to set up parental controls. "I think parents can feel a bit overwhelmed by the technology," she said. "We often find that parents feel left behind by their children and that children know more about the internet than they do. "We would encourage parents to get their children to show them what they're doing, and that way you can learn with them through their own experiences and you'll be better able to deal with the kind of issues they're going to come up against."
“The four main broadband providers recently all launched Whole Home Filtering." Carolyn told us.
“So basically on the router that controls the internet that comes into your house, you can set settings that will block pornography, violence, crime, hatred, virus sites. “You can even block gaming and social media networks if you want to, if you have younger children in the home.”
Internet Matters have produced step-by-step guides on how to set up free parental controls on Virgin Media, Sky Broadband, Talk Talk and BT as well as a number of mobile phone networks, digital TV services including Netflix, and devices such as iPad, iPod, XBOX, Nintendo and Playstation. You can find them all HERE