Talking about online safety going forward

Unhelpful 

This could be unhelpful advice. Rather than telling the specific people that you want to have your new number, sharing it online potentially means people you didn’t expect could end up with it. Instead, decide together who will have your phone number and give this to them in person if possible. It may be a good idea to share your new number with a small group of family members and one or two very close friends and see how this goes before sharing it with a wider friendship group. 

Helpful  

This is helpful advice. Games can be great fun, but they're designed to keep you playing. Different features like loot boxes, daily challenges and time-limited discounts can make it difficult to stop. It can be easy to spend money in games, whether real or in-game currency, to try and speed up progress or create a better character. If you are tempted to spend money you know you shouldn’t, it’s a very good time to take a break. 

Parents, encourage your children to come and talk to you in this situation and explain why they want to spend this money so that you can help them to identify if it is a good idea. 

Unhelpful 

This could be unhelpful advice. There are lots of ways you could respond to this situation. One of these is to challenge the people making comments but that’s not always going to be the best approach. This could work if, for example if you know the people making the comments very well and feel confident to say something. But you might be worried about their reaction. The best thing to do is speak to a safe adult about what you have seen and, if possible, show the messages to them. This way the adult can take responsibility for making sure the person being picked on gets help. Reporting the comments on the app or site can also be a good approach. This can often be done anonymously so can be easier than saying something directly.   

Unhelpful 

This is not helpful advice. There may be times when it is ok to have a location setting switched on, for example if you are walking back from school on your own for the first time, you might share your location with your parent. But having it switched on all the time and set to public risks other people being able to see where you are. Talk as a family about why it is not safe to share your location publicly with other people and agree together who it is ok to share your location with. Some apps have location settings set to public as default so make sure you check these and switch to private where necessary. 

Unhelpful 

This is not helpful advice. While this might seem like a good idea, it could cause more harm than good. Firstly, it might give a false sense of security. Getting a picture of someone, even if it seems to confirm who they are, does not necessarily mean they're a safe person. Another reason is that asking for a picture might make this person feel uncomfortable. Remember everyone has the right to safety online and the right not to have someone ask for a picture of them. If you're speaking to some online that you do not know well offline, you shouldn’t share personal information and should check in with a safe adult.