You are on this page: Resources for Parents and Caring Adults
Parents and caring adults (including mentors, coaches, staff of youth programs, and many others), have an important role to play in helping young people navigate the Internet and social media safely. By having open conversations and setting boundaries, and utilizing parental controls if necessary, parents and other caring adults can help youth get the most out of the digital landscape. Having proactive conversations can also help youth to feel comfortable reaching out for help should something go wrong. This page contains resources, organized by different age groups, to get you started.
General
- Social Media and the Internet: Parents, Caregivers and Trusted Adults (OCFS Pub. 5220)
- Love146, a non-profit dedicated to preventing and eradicating child exploitation, has a guide for caregivers with tips for talking to youth about internet safety and much more.
- Shared Hope International offers fact sheets, videos, a Parent Guide, and app-specific information about how to talk with young people about online safety.
- Use of Communication Technologies by Children in Foster Care (19-OCFS-INF-04), there are also several helpful attachments to this Informational Letter on the OCFS website.
- Connectsafely.org offers research-based safety tips, parents’ guidebooks, advice, news, and commentary on all aspects of technology use and policy. Their quick guides describe the basics of some popular apps and how to use their privacy and safety tools.
- For information about how hardware, software, malware, spyware and more work and learn how to make it work for you and the youth you care about visit staysafe.org.
- Common Sense Media shares helpful information by age, topic, and apps and games under the “parents need to know” tab.
- Net Cetera: Chatting with kids about being online reference guide. This free reference guide can be used to begin a conversation with youth about internet safety.
- Net Cetera: Chatting with kids about being online. What parents need to know, and issues to raise with kids about living their lives online.
- Take It Down. This new service from NCMEC allows users to submit a case to help remove nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photos and videos depicting a child under 18 years old from the surfaces of participating electronic service providers.
Kids (age 6-10)
- NetSmartzkids.org offers videos, games, activities, and a fun way to start educating younger kids about how to use the internet safely.
- Checklist: Supporting 6-10-year-olds online: Early use of digital technology has been shown to improve language skills and promote children’s social development and creativity but it’s not without risks for young children, who may come across inappropriate content or begin to copy what older children do online. This checklist provides tips to help understand what you can do to give young children the best experience of going online.
Tweens and Teens (age 11+)
- NSTeens uses games with zombies, quizzes, videos, and choose your own adventure comics to talk all things related to the internet.
- Revenge porn, sextortion, and more – Information on what this all means and tips for how to talk to your teen about it can be found at stopsextortion.com.
- Internet safety checklist for pre-teens: As children between the ages of 11 and 13 make the transition to a more independent stage with the move to middle school, they become more confident internet users with more varied habits. This checklist provides resources for 11-13-year-olds including age appropriate apps and tips on talking to children ages 11-13 about internet safety.
- Internet safety checklist for teens: As your child becomes a teenager, it’s likely the internet will be a part of their daily life. This is a compilation of practical tips to help teens have a safer online experience and build up their resilience to get the best out of the digital world as they grow.