Email

No doubt you use email, either at home or at work, so we won’t go into the details of the technology itself.

Suffice to say, you’ll understand what a useful communications tool email is – it’s fared well despite the growth of social networking and, in 2010, it still accounted for seven per cent of the overall time spent online in the UK

But you probably acknowledge that there are also some annoyances when it comes to email – perhaps you’ve been spammed, picked up a virus or been the target of an identity thief.

These potential online safety risks, along with others such as cyberbullying, can make younger email users vulnerable.

• Set up Parental Controls based on your child’s age and maturity (if you have younger children, you might decide that they can only email people your family knows, for example). But remember, Parental Controls might not be 100% effective and they aren’t a substitute for parental supervision
• Make sure your son or daughter has a strong password (containing a mixture of letters, digits and symbols) set up on their email account and that they don’t share it with anyone
• Explain to them why it’s important to keep personal information, such as their name, address and school, to themselves
• Encourage your child to only give their email address to people they know and trust and to never respond to emails from strangers
• Read our articles about cyberbullying, identity theft, inappropriate content, online grooming, privacy, security and spam & scams for further advice
• Learn about managing reputation and sexting so that you can talk to your son or daughter about how they should use email responsibly
• Explain to your child that companies might contact them via email – you can find more information in our articles about online advertising and spam & scams

• Visit the Chatdanger website for email safety advice