Briefing On Developments With The NSPCC Share Aware Campaign On On-Line Safety

The NSPCC’s Share Aware campaign encourages parents to speak to their children about online safety and gives them the knowledge and confidence to do this effectively.

In today’s fast moving digital world it can be difficult for parents to keep up to date on the latest sites, apps and games. We therefore launched an interactive parents’ guide, Net Aware, which explains what other parents and young people think about 60 of the most popular social apps and games, what’s the right age, and details on privacy and safety settings. You can access Net Aware on line at www.net-aware.org.uk

Support for the campaign

Since Share Aware was launched in January 2015, 400,000 parents have spoken to their children about online safety as a direct result of the campaign. After seeing the campaign, 42 per cent of parents either immediately talked to their child about online safety or made plans to do so. The campaign has been supported by a range of organisations, including police, local authorities, and schools. Many schools have shown the campaign animations on You Tube and a number of partnership campaigns have been launched across the country.

Developments with the Share Aware campaign

To help parents stay on top of what’s new in the digital world we have updated our free Net Aware guide for parents by adding 12 new sites, apps and games. The next wave of the campaign is about making sure parents cover the right topics when they talk to their children about staying safe online. Young people have told us the thing they most want parents to cover in online safety conversations are privacy settings (81%) followed by support on cyber bullying (76%) and staying safe from strangers online (74%).  In contrast, from our research with YouGov, only 28% of parents covered privacy settings in online safety conversations with their children. Parents need to stay up to date on the ins and outs on all the sites, apps and games young people use and Net Aware plays a big part in this. We’re also asking parents to look at the new video chat apps, make sure they are up to date on social gaming and aware of teen dating sites.