The Children’s Commissioner has published a new guide (What I Wish My Parents Or Carer’s Knew : A Guide For Parents on Managing Children’s Digital Lives’.
Supporting children’s safety is a shared responsibility between families, schools and wider society. For parents and carers, this responsibility has become increasingly complex as children’s lives are now deeply intertwined with the digital world. Many parents face difficult decisions about how to balance protecting children from online harm with enabling access to spaces that are now central to learning, socialising and play.
This guide was written with the direct involvement of children in England. It is a reflection of their views. The Children’s Commissioners office visited schools to speak to teenagers, Youth Ambassadors and Youth Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Panel to get their expertise on what works and what doesn’t work between parents or carers and children in the 21st Century.
As Dame Rachel de Souza writes…. “As parents, carers, and educators, our job must begin and end with our children’s care and safety. It’s what they expect and what they want from you.
As one young person told me: “Don’t be afraid to be firm… If you are worried [that] your child is seeing harmful content and you don’t know what they’re watching and it’s affecting the behaviour, just take it that you know best – they don’t.”
We hope the guide will be a useful resource for the whole school community.