As we approach school closures, lots of children and young people with time on their hands. Sony, Microsoft (Xbox) and Nintendo have already reported large increase in users on their platforms and the developers behind Fortnite have reported a large spike in users. Social media platforms have also reported an increase in use.
This is likely to continue over the coming weeks and months. So with that in mind here are some handy links for parents and carers on setting parental controls on consoles and gadgets that may help to ease some worries at least and to protect children from accessing inappropriate material and what not.
https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/ – Our personal favourite site for setting parental controls with easy step by step picture guides on how to set controls on most popular gadgets.
www.darlington.gov.uk/disp – This is our own site that Colin and myself populate. It’s still new and we are and will be adding new content over the coming days and weeks. We have useful advice, guides and links on a variety of internet and gaming related topics/issues.
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/ – This is NSPCC site and contains some great information on popular apps and games.
We also recommend people to download the Pegi age rating app https://pegi.info/app available in all the app stores. The app provides excellent information on video game age ratings.
As well as the above whatever happens myself, Mike and Colin will continue to provide information, we are looking at a joint email system to answer questions and queries and help plan for the changes in September 2020. We will also support and give advice to staff, families, children and young people if they need it with internet safety related issues.
This information is all on our DISP Webpage too: