Parents
Safeguarding Help & Support
Please click here to submit a safeguarding concern.
Childline is probably your first port of call if you need some independent help and support with any aspect of your life
https://www.childline.org.uk/
https://kooth.com/
Get Connected is also a great starting point that aims to find you the help you need from a range of different agencies, and you can contact by phone, SMS or email. The site also has a way of hiding your visit so that nobody else needs to know you viewed if you are using a shared computer or device.
http://www.themix.org.uk/
http://www.talktofrank.com/
Think U Know
The best site out there for sensible and practical advice on keeping your child safe online, plus what to do if something goes wrong.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
NSPCC – Staying Safe Online
This is another great website for no-nonsense help with ensuring that your child stays safe online – it also explains very clearly the kind of things they may be doing online!
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
The Parent Zone
Information on online safety, securing the best education for your child, when and where they are allowed to work, and lots more.
Family Lives
Click on the link below to access Family Lives – an organisation providing help and support to parents. This website includes excellent parent guides to Facebook and Twitter, plus an immediate webchat service.
http://www.familylives.org.uk/
Staying Safe Online
Get Safe Online
A great starting point for online safety covering issues as diverse as online banking, computer viruses and social media! Start here and then progress to some of the more detailed websites below for specific issues with which you might need help.
https://www.getsafeonline.org/
Social Networking
The two best sites for seeking help on social networking when (or before) things go wrong are:
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/networks/?order=-popularity
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/social-media-guides
Making a CEOP Report
Report issues of online abuse or if you are concerned about the way in which someone has been communicating with you online, click on the button below to make a report to CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
This might be someone:
- Making you have sex when you don’t want to
- Chatting online about sex
- Asking you to do sexual things on webcam
- Asking you to meet up if you’ve only met them online
- Asking for sexual pictures of you
- Making you feel unsafe
- They will walk you the process of reporting and you can change your mind and stop at any stage.
https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/
Reporting Terrorist Activity
If you come across any terrorist related content or violent extremist content online or offline that worries you, click the STOP button below. Communities working together defeat terrorism, and the police need your help to pass on anything you know or discover.
https://www.gov.uk/report-terrorism
Reporting Harmful Content
The RHC button is an asset of SWGfL, a charity working internationally to ensure all benefit from technology, free from harm.
The button has been developed to offer anyone living in the UK a simple and convenient mechanism for gaining access to reporting routes for commonly used social networking sites, gaming platforms, apps and streaming services alongside trusted online safety advice, help and support. It also provides access to an online mechanism for reporting online harm to the RHC service for those over the age of 13 where an intial report has been made to industry but no action has been taken. RHC will review content in line with a sites' community standards and act in a mediatory capacity where content goes against these.
Children under 13 years of age are encouraged to tell an adult that they trust about what has happened and to ask for their help in reporting this going through our how we can help resource together.
RHC also have advice and links to reporting routes for other online harms people may come across or face, such as impersonation, privacy violations and intimate image abuse.
The RHC button provides a gateway to the RHC reporting pages, an area of the RHC website offering:
- links to reporting routes on commonly used sites for 8 types of online harm
- help, advice and support on what to do if experiencing or witnessing harm online
- signposting to industry partners reporting forms and the ability to reportlegal but harmful content directly to RHC for further investigation
Reporting to RHC
Reports can be made 24/7 through the online reporting forms and helpline practitioners will review and respond to reports within 72 hours between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday.
Reports can be made to RHC by anyone over the age of 13. SWGfL operates 3 helplines and to be sure you're getting the right support take a look at the Helpline flowchart to find out who can best support you.