Making privacy part of my child's online routine

You don’t have to tackle all aspects of online privacy at once – sometimes it works better to keep coming back to it in bite-sized chats over time. ​

This helps children absorb information gradually and gives you space to think carefully about what works best for your family. It also enables you to adapt as they grow and their online habits change. ​

We’ve set out the five online privacy topics that most families need to think about, along with some questions you might want to consider. ​

You’re not expected to have all the answers. What matters most is to chat to your child about online privacy, so they understand they have choices over how their information is shared online and begin to build smart habits to stay safe online. ​

Privacy settings​

• Are profiles set to private?​
• Who can see posts, tag your child or message them?​

Location settings​

• Which devices, apps or mobile games are accessing location data?​
• Is location-sharing necessary or could you turn it off?​
• Who else can see your child’s location details?​
• Does your child automatically click ‘agree’ when a location settings request pops up?​

Ad settings ​

• Are you happy for your child to accept personalised or targeted advertising, cookies or marketing (where advertisers target them based on their interests, demographics, behaviour, or app usage)?
• Which websites, apps or mobile games are collecting your child’s personal information or tracking their activity?​
• Are those websites, apps or mobile games also sharing the information with other third parties?​

Parental controls and age settings​

• Do you have parental controls set up?​
• Do websites, apps or mobile games know your child’s real age? If not, how old do they think your child is? ​

Personal information​

• Have you agreed when personal information (such as address, phone number, school, email address or photos) is OK  to share and who with?​
• What about AI? Are there any details, such as health information, that you’d prefer your child didn’t share with AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude?