Chapter contents
Risks for Foster Parents (Social Networking)
General Tips for Foster Parents
Introduction
The use of technology, and going online, have become part of everyday life for both young people and adults in the UK. Young people start using online information and services at a young age, both at home and in the school environment. Helping keep them safe online is an essential part of caring for children and young people.
Keeping young people safe online involves two things:
- Using parental controls to block and filter age-inappropriate content.
- Teaching young people to recognise and avoid risks so that they learn to keep themselves safe online.
It is not important for you to understand how all the technology works, but it is important that you are able to talk about online behaviour and risks with your young people. ISP will provide training to help you with this.
For more information, see our E-Safety Practice Guidance Procedure and Monitoring & Surveillance of Children & Young People policy.
The Role of the Foster Parent
A computer at home
You must have a computer at home that your young people can use to complete school work, and go online for both educational and leisure purposes.
Parental controls
You should install appropriate parental controls on any home computer that is used by young people. This will be discussed as part of the young person’s risk assessment, and might include:
- Inappropriate content filters applied to your home Wifi
- Blocking of specific websites
- Time limits
- Child accounts with age classification filters
- Monitoring with online safety apps such as Qustodio
Technology for young people
You will usually be asked to provide young people with a mobile phone when they reach secondary school age. Parental controls should be applied in the same way as for home computers – in line with the risk assessment. If you choose to provide other technology, including tablets and gaming devices, then you must apply parental controls wherever possible. You can get advice and instructions to help you do this at:
www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls.
Home agreement
You should discuss online safety with young people to promote safe online behaviour. A Home Agreement that outlines acceptable online use can be a helpful way of setting boundaries with young people.
Monitor and supervise
You must take reasonable steps to monitor and supervise children’s online activities. What this involves will differ from child to child, according to their individual behaviours and varying risk factors. The risk assessment and safer care plan should outline action needed for each young person.
Book on our training course: Parental Controls:
Risks for Young People
There are a number of common online safety risks for young people that can be broadly categorised into three areas of risk: content, contact and conduct:
Content risks
Some risks involve exposure to harmful images and messages online. Young people might find these things by accident, or by actively looking for them.
Harmful content includes:
- sexual images
- hate messages towards specific religions or social groups
- violent images
- forums that support suicide, eating disorders and self-harm.
Parental controls can be used to block this content and you can find out how to do this at www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls.
Young people who are actively searching for this content need to be monitored closely as they might try to bypass your parental controls.
Social networking sites typically have an age rating of 13+ years. This includes Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Their content will therefore be targeted at teenagers and adults and might not be suitable for children under this age. Users can post content freely, and the site will then remove anything which it considers harmful. The sites rely on users flagging up harmful content.
Age classification: films, games and online content
To protect children from unsuitable or harmful content in films, DVDs and computer games, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) rates the content so that consumers can see if it is suitable for children of different ages. Shops must not sell products to children who are younger than the age stated, and cinemas must not admit children to view a film if they are underage.
BBFC ratings for film, DVD and online content
U (Universal, suitable for all ages)
PG (Parental Guidance – general viewing). Might be unsuitable for very young children, but should not unsettle a child aged 8 years or older
12A/12 (suitable for children aged 12 years and older). 12A is used for cinema release and 12 for DVD. A child aged under 12 years will be admitted to a cinema showing of the film if they are accompanied by an adult
15 (suitable for 15 years and older)
18 (suitable for 18 years and older)
PEGI (Pan European Game Information) provides a similar service in relation to video games. Shops must not sell games to children who are underage.
PEGI game ratings
3 (considered suitable for all ages)
7 (generally suitable for all, but might contain fighting scenes)
12 (games that involve slightly graphic violence towards fantasy characters, or non-graphic violence towards human-looking characters/recognisable animals. Might involve some non-graphic nudity and mild swearing
16 (depiction of violence or sexual activity is realistic, more extreme bad language, depiction of drugs criminal activity)
18 (depiction of gross violence that could cause a viewer to feel revulsion)
Using the classification system in your home
- You should not purchase DVDs or games for children if they are underage, and you should not permit them to watch films or play games that are not considered suitable for their age at other locations (e.g. school, friends’ houses).
- A parent can decide whether a PG-rated film, or a 12A cinema release is suitable for their child, and you might be able to make these decisions under delegated authority. If it is not clear in the placement plan that you have been given delegated authority to make this decision, check with the child’s social worker.
- Parental control software allows you to restrict online content in line with BBFC guidelines. Discuss this with the child’s social worker and agree appropriate restrictions. These restrictions should be noted within the young person’s risk assessment and safer care plan.
Read more about PEGI’s game ratings at CEOP Education.
Contact risks
Some risks involve harmful online interactions with other users. Two issues of particular concern are online bullying, and grooming:
Online bullying
Online bullying (aka cyberbullying) means any form of bullying which takes place online or through smartphones and tablets, including through social networking sites, messaging apps, gaming sites and chat rooms. It may include:
- Continually sending e-mails or messages to someone who does not want any contact with the sender
- Rude remarks, including ‘gossip’
- Abusive comments and threats
- Sharing pictures, videos or personal information to cause harm, embarrassment or humiliation
- Hacking into someone’s email or social media account and sending malicious messages/making offensive comments while posing as that person
- Creating websites that make fun of someone, or spread malicious rumours.
Young people with mobile phones need to be careful who they give their phone number to. Advise them that if they receive threatening or abusive phone calls, texts or emails to store the message (do not delete it) and tell you, or someone else that they trust. It is a criminal offense to send offensive or threatening messages and if it continues it can also amount to harassment. The police can take action but will need the messages as evidence.
Young people should also be aware that ‘liking’ or ‘sharing’ bullying comments on social networking sites is considered to be bullying.
Grooming
Some adults who want to engage children in sexual activity, or talk to them for sexual gratification, will seek out young people online, sometimes posing as another young person. Young people will often accept friend requests when they appear to come from other young people, even if not known to them.
When a young person accepts a friend request from an unknown person, that person becomes a ‘friend of a friend’ to the young person’s network of friends. This increases the likelihood that those young people will also accept a friend request from them. A young person is therefore also protecting their friends when they are careful about who they accept on their ‘friend’ list.
Grooming methods include:
- Building the child’s trust by offering friendship
- Initiating more intimate conversation with images and webcam
- Using blackmail to force a child to provide more extreme images or meet up in real life
Children in foster care can be particularly vulnerable to grooming if they have a low self-esteem, need for attention and affection, and have not formed a strong attachment to a carer who they can turn to for support. These young people might be more likely to turn to chat rooms that offer immediate gratification and the comfort of anonymity.
Young people can protect themselves from grooming by:
- Protecting their online profiles so that only friends can see what they post
- Only accepting friend requests from people they know in the real world
- Keeping their personal contact details private
Conduct risks
Young people’s behaviour online, and the choices they make can expose them to risks. Some examples include sharing of personal and private information, chatting with strangers and sexting/sharing nude selfies.
Online gaming, with friends or with wider communities is an area where young people can experience risky behaviour. CEOP’s Thinkuknow have a useful guide for young people to help them be safe online:
There are concerns that some young people take photographs of their breasts and genitals (commonly known as ‘nude selfies’/ ‘nudes’) and share these by mobile phone or social media with their boyfriends/girlfriends. Some young people are also exposing themselves on webcam both to people they know and strangers within chat rooms. It is vital that young people know that when they send such images, they lose control of them and could find that they are shared on. The images can be copied and posted anywhere online without their permission. There is the additional risk that the recipient will use the image in future to blackmail the young person.
Young people also need to know that creating, storing and distributing these images is a crime, if the young person pictured is under 18. This can result in a criminal conviction which will affect their future, including career opportunities.
The message to young people is clear:
- Do not take nude images of yourself
- If you receive a nude image, delete it without saving or sharing it. N.B. If the image is of a young child, or you think the person in the image is in danger, tell an adult.
It is important that young people know that if anyone is making them feel uncomfortable online and asking them to take indecent images of themselves that they can:
- Tell you
- Report the other person to CEOP, particularly if the request comes from someone they don’t know. You can make a CEOP report at CEOP Education.
Young people can get assistance to remove nude images online from the Internet Watch Foundation and Childline at:
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation provides a service for parents who are concerned about protecting their child from online sexual abuse. Here is a link to their Parents Protect website:
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation can also provide services for young people who have been involved in sexually harmful behaviour.
N.B. Agency staff and foster parents must not print, forward, distribute or save any youth produced sexual imagery unless instructed to do so by the police.
For more information, see our Responding to Sexting policy:
Book on our training courses: Internet and Mobile Safety; Introduction to Sexting
Risks for Foster Parents (social networking)
Social networking sites are widely used by foster parents and children as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends. There are some potential dangers, due mainly to the fact that accounts can be easily accessed unless the account holder applies privacy settings.
If you use social networking sites such as Facebook, there are two important things that you need to consider: who can see what you post, and what will be the effect on your reputation?
Our advice:
- Make sure that your profiles are private so that only friends can see what you post.
- Consider what you post, like and share online. Could your posts embarrass or offend anyone? A good rule of thumb is to consider “would I say this in real life?” or “would I be happy for the whole world to see this?” Even if your profile is private, any of your friends could share something you post.
- It is important that you do not post photos of foster children on social networking sites or breach their right to privacy. You should not share any confidential information on social networking sites, including anything that might identify a foster child. There is always the possibility that the child’s birth family might see what you post, and this could be particularly dangerous if they are someone who is legally prevented from having contact with the child.
- Consider who you make friends with online. You should not be online ‘friends’ with young people whom you are not caring for (unless they are former foster children and their local authority agrees), your supervising social worker, your children’s social workers or your children’s teachers.
Your use of the internet and social media will be discussed at your Annual Review and the reviewing social worker will check anything that is on public view. View our guide to social networking for carers
For more information, see our Essential Guide to Social Media:
Book on our training course: Safe Social Networking
Internet Security
It is important when using online technology to protect your personal information from being accessed, stolen or in any way misused. You might experience:
- Unsolicited e-mail also known as ‘Spam’. Some of this material is of a sexual nature, but it is often used for advertising and ‘scam’ offers.
- Viruses or Worms that are often distributed by email as an attachment, or by a website containing malicious software. These are programs that install themselves into your computer software, causing malfunction and damage. Some malicious software can transfer all the information stored on the computer to another source unbeknown to the user.
- Phishing scams which are emails from companies or individuals that pose as someone such as your bank or possibly someone needing your help. They will try to obtain information such as passwords from you with the intention of stealing money or personal details. This can also lead to identity theft.
- Hacking – whilst connected to the Internet it is possible for someone to access your computer contents without your knowledge, if you do not have the correct firewall and antivirus products in place.
Use strong passwords, keep passwords safe and never share them with anyone. Follow the same rules for mobile phone passcodes. If you think someone might know your password/passcode, change it straight away.
Book on our training course: Internet Security
General Tips for Foster Parents
- Talk to young people about what they do online. Ask them to show you how things work.
- Find out about the websites and apps that are popular with young people. There are lots of “parent guides” online to help with this. You can find these at NSPCC
- Set parental control filters on your home broadband router. There are online guides to doing this. See the Internet Matters website www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls or call your broadband provider for assistance.
- Set young people up with their own ‘child’ account on the home computer, and if it is a Windows computer, use Windows Family Safety to set time limits around internet usage and age restrictions on content they can access. Ensure children don’t have administrator rights to your computer as this would allow them to bypass security measures easily.
- Set age-appropriate parental controls on mobile phones that you provide for young people. The Internet Matters website can guide you in doing this, or ask the mobile phone shop for help and advice.
- Set parental controls on all internet enabled devices in the home, including smart TVs, and gaming devices. The Internet Matters website can guide you in doing this.
- Apply all available privacy settings on apps such as Facebook and Instagram. Do this for your own profiles and help young people if necessary to privatise their own accounts.
- Install internet security software to protect from viruses and other forms of cyber-attack. Well known providers include Norton, McAfee and AVG.
- If you are looking after very young children, use a search engine designed for children. A good example is KidzSearch, by Google.
- Set up a home agreement around the use of technology. This should include keeping computers in family areas.
