I recently met with online safety campaigners from Internet Matters to hear about how we can help make the internet a safer place for children.
The not-for-profit aims to assist parents in keeping kids safe online and held a drop-in session in Parliament, alongside Google, to showcase the tools they both have available for parents and schools.
Just in time for the new school term, Internet Matter have relaunched the schools section on their website. Research shows that schools are the most popular place for parents to seek help with online safety issues, so I was given a guided tour of the new resource hub which now includes a host of school programmes, training, classroom resources, and a communication pack to help schools drive engagement with parents.
Likewise Google has already developed online safety tools such as its Safe Search feature which filters potentially offensive content, and the YouTube Kids app which allows families to watch child friendly programmes with peace of mind.
As children increasingly live their lives online, internet safety is becoming more of a pressing issue for teachers and schools.
All young people should be able to enjoy the wealth of information and entertainment available online in a way that is as safe and age appropriate as possible, and building a form of digital resilience is key for life in today's world.
For more information on helping to keep children safe online, please visit www.internetmatters.org.
