Many of you will have heard of, and may have concerns about the Momo Challenge on social media. We won’t go into the details of it, but basically Momo is a sinister online ‘game’ which encourages dangerous and often harmful challenges. It has resurfaced recently and has come to the attention of children across the country. We thought the following information and web links might be useful if you are worried about your children’s online safety.
Two very useful sources for internet safety information and advice are National Online Safety who support UK schools and the UK Safer Internet Centre.
A very useful and informative parent’s guide about the Momo Challenge is available on the National Online Safety website – click here to download and read it.
You can also find lots of advice and resources to help your children and young people stay safe online on the UK Safer Internet Centre website here.
The Safer Internet Centre have a section with tips, advice, guides and resources specifically for parents and carers which you will find helpful. Click here to go to that section of their website. As they say, ‘you don’t need to be an expert on the Internet to help keep your child stay safe online.’ Some of the advice they offer includes –
- Have a conversation with your child or children – ask your child to tell you about the sites they like to visit, ask them if they know where to go for help or know how to report or block the services they use.
- They also offer good advice on safety tools for social networks and other online services.
- There are also articles on ‘Parental Controls’, ‘Parents’ Guide to Technology’ and lots of the latest information and advice on their blog.
There is no doubt that the Internet and Social Media have a significant influence on all of our lives, especially our children. Of course, it is not all bad, indeed the positives far outweigh all the negative aspects as the Internet has lots of fantastic content, information, games and innovative ways of educating and teaching our children and young people.
However, it is clear that it is important as parents not to ignore the potential dangers. Indeed, it is recommended that parents should keep ‘up to speed’ with all the latest trends, potential negative influences, find out about these and, has already been suggested, discuss these with your children.
If you have concerns about your child’s online safety, there is help available. The two sites we mentioned are only two examples we found to be very helpful and there are many others.
