Improve your children's safety online

Thames Valley Police launch new iniative

A NEW initiative aimed at protecting young people online has been launched this week.

The second phase of the Thames Valley Police #ProtectYourWorld cyber crime campaign, in partnership with the NSPCC, will focus on encouraging parents, carers and anyone who has contact with young people to engage with them about their online activity.

Det Sgt Sally Russell, of the Thames Valley Police Cyber Crime Team, said: “Our campaign is aimed at encouraging parents to have regular conversations with their children about their online activity, as well as to take some simple steps to help improve their knowledge.

“For example, we want to encourage parents to better understand the social media platforms their child is using by signposting them to the NSPCC Net Aware website, which tells them the content, age restrictions and perceived risk levels of over 30 platforms.

“With young people spending so much of their social time online, it’s crucial that they know how to keep themselves safe.

“It’s also vital that parents have enough knowledge to help them do so.”

According to Ofcom statistics, 13 per cent of children aged between 12 and 15 with a social media profile agree that getting likes or followers is more important to them than keeping their posts, comments or photos private, while 23 per cent said that they do not know how to control who can see what they see on social media

The campaign began in November, with the first phase focussing on raising awareness of cyber crime and encouraging residents and businesses to take action to protect their online worlds.

The second phase, launched on Monday, coincided with Safer Internet Day 2018, on Tuesday, with the slogan Create, Connect and Share Respect: a better internet starts with you.

You can follow the campaign via @ThamesVP on Twitter and the Thames Valley Police Facebook account using #ProtectYourWorld.