Online Safety Advice for Parent/Carers
We have seen an increase in the number of children who tell us they have created YouTube accounts and are sharing videos, including videos of themselves.
The dangers of sharing videos are explained to the children in our Online Safety lessons, and children know they should be 13+ to create a YouTube account of their own. We strongly recommend this is adhered to.
As well as the dangers of online content, in conversation with the children, they can appear fixated on the amount of hits and likes their videos get. This can be dangerous, as children try to create content that is likely to get more hits, they can open themselves up to dangerous online behaviours.
However, we understand that many children see YouTuber as a career goal, and view creating a channel as the first steps to achieve this. YouTube Kids is a safer option, but still requires contributors to be 13+. We offer some advice that is very important to follow to try and maintain the children’s safety, should they set up a YouTube/YouTube Kids account:
1. Set the account up together with your child, only posting videos that have been approved by parent/carer. Make this clear when setting up an account.
2. Avoid showing children’s faces.
3. NEVER share names, either within the video or in the account details. This information can be used by people wishing to harm children to make contact.
4. NEVER share a location.
5. Turn off the comments section – this is used by strangers to make contact with children searching for likes.
Here is a useful guide to support safe use of YouTube as a viewer and a contributor:
https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/guidance/youtube-tips-and-tricks-to-keep-your-children-entertained-and-safe
Catherine Hawkesworth, posted on June 26, 2023 Monday at 2:15 pm Comments are currently closed.
