The internet can be an extremely useful tool in supporting the puberty education of children with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. As you journey through Planet Puberty, you’ll find that there are lots of strategies we suggest that involve utilising tablets, phones, YouTube and other different digital platforms to assist your child in things like communication, visual scheduling and creating social stories. Internet connected devices can also be a much-needed support for parents, especially when you want some private time or when your child wants some entertainment! See Self-Care.
Parents are often concerned about their child’s access to the internet and how they can keep them safe. Depending on the devices or apps your child commonly uses, they may have varying degrees of access to different parts of the internet. Here are some suggestions to help keep your child safe and cyber-smart online:
Create a family tech agreement
Passwords are private
Check your privacy settings
Talk about sharing
Talk about attachments
A family tech agreement can be a good way to involve your child in setting boundaries, setting a schedule and practicing decision making skills. If your child uses a computer or tablet at school, they will likely have something similar.
The tech agreement might contain things like:
- how long you spend online
- what types of websites and games can be visited
- what is acceptable online behaviour
- what to do if you see something that makes you feel bad
Create a family tech agreement
Passwords are private
Check your privacy settings
Talk about sharing
Talk about attachments
A family tech agreement can be a good way to involve your child in setting boundaries, setting a schedule and practicing decision making skills. If your child uses a computer or tablet at school, they will likely have something similar.
The tech agreement might contain things like:
- how long you spend online
- what types of websites and games can be visited
- what is acceptable online behaviour
- what to do if you see something that makes you feel bad
Create a family tech agreement
A family tech agreement can be a good way to involve your child in setting boundaries, setting a schedule and practicing decision making skills. If your child uses a computer or tablet at school, they will likely have something similar.
The tech agreement might contain things like:
- how long you spend online
- what types of websites and games can be visited
- what is acceptable online behaviour
- what to do if you see something that makes you feel bad
Passwords are private
Emphasise the importance of keeping personal details like banking details and passwords private. There are a number of secure password storage apps available that you can set up to ensure that private login information is accessible by your child but safe from the eyes of anyone else.
Check your privacy settings
It’s important to support your child to:
- make sure their social media profiles are able to be viewed only by ‘friends’
- set their profiles so that they have to approve pictures before they are tagged in them
- delete contacts that they don’t actually know
- familiarise themselves with the report and block buttons.
- make sure your child feels confident in blocking and reporting any content or contact they receive that makes them feel unsafe. The person will not know you have reported them so it is safe to do.
- delete any requests you receive from strangers.
Talk about sharing
Help your child understand what type of information is OK and not OK to share online. Your child should not share their:
- full name
- address
- phone number
- school name or photos of their school uniform
Talk about attachments
Not everything sent in an email or a message is safe to open. Lots of spam emails will have fake names and offers of lots of money, fame and fortune. It’s important to teach your child to not open links or downloads that have not been specifically requested or sent by a trusted person. You can support this by making sure your anti-virus software is up to date, and to encourage your child to seek help if they are unsure
Create a family tech agreement
A family tech agreement can be a good way to involve your child in setting boundaries, setting a schedule and practicing decision making skills. If your child uses a computer or tablet at school, they will likely have something similar.
The tech agreement might contain things like:
- how long you spend online
- what types of websites and games can be visited
- what is acceptable online behaviour
- what to do if you see something that makes you feel bad
Passwords are private
Emphasise the importance of keeping personal details like banking details and passwords private. There are a number of secure password storage apps available that you can set up to ensure that private login information is accessible by your child but safe from the eyes of anyone else.
Check your privacy settings
It’s important to support your child to:
- make sure their social media profiles are able to be viewed only by ‘friends’
- set their profiles so that they have to approve pictures before they are tagged in them
- delete contacts that they don’t actually know
- familiarise themselves with the report and block buttons.
- make sure your child feels confident in blocking and reporting any content or contact they receive that makes them feel unsafe. The person will not know you have reported them so it is safe to do.
- delete any requests you receive from strangers.
Talk about sharing
Help your child understand what type of information is OK and not OK to share online. Your child should not share their:
- full name
- address
- phone number
- school name or photos of their school uniform
Talk about attachments
Not everything sent in an email or a message is safe to open. Lots of spam emails will have fake names and offers of lots of money, fame and fortune. It’s important to teach your child to not open links or downloads that have not been specifically requested or sent by a trusted person. You can support this by making sure your anti-virus software is up to date, and to encourage your child to seek help if they are unsure
Conversation Starters
(Use an example of a junk email that you know is spam) I just got an email – can you tell me whether you think it’s a safe email or not? Why do you think that?
I’ve been thinking that we should have a family talk about the internet. Have you got any ideas of how to make the internet safe for our family?
What is your favourite website? Can you show me?
eSafety guide
