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Keeping your child safe online should be easy

Smart devices offer benefits like internet access for schoolwork, entertainment, and staying connected. However, ensuring safe and responsible use is vital. To help parents support their children online, we provide practical advice, created with CyberSafeKids, to promote safety and confidence in navigating the digital world.

CyberSafeKids

CyberSafeKids, Ireland's online safety charity, protects children online through education, research, and advocacy. Their 'Better Digital Parenting Guide' offers tips on parental controls, screen time, privacy, and online safety. It also helps parents address cyberbullying, online grooming, and family tech agreements.

If you're considering purchasing a smart device for your children or young people, CyberSafeKids have designed a handy Gadget Gift Guide to help you - as parents and guardians - be better informed before you purchase.

Find out more about CyberSafeKids here:

www.cybersafekids.ie
Cyber Safe Kids

How we help

Tesco Mobile, alongside industry partners, has developed a Code of Practice and a Parent's Guide for the responsible use of mobile phones.

The Code outlines standards for parental controls, offensive communications, and Premium Rate Services. The Parent's Guide explains mobile features like internet access and live-streaming, offers advice on handling issues like bullying, and provides reporting resources. Tesco Mobile blocks inappropriate content and supports Hotline.ie (Hotline provides users with the ability to report anonymously suspected illegal material, including CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material).

www.hotline.ie
Help us stop repeat victimisation by reporting.

Buying your child their first phone…

When you feel it is time to give your child a handset, whether that be handing down your old one or buying a new one, we’ve put together some questions and answers that should help you on this journey:

Discuss with your child what they will most likely use their phone for – is it for safety reasons, so that they can keep in touch and vice versa. This can be achieved with a non-smartphone i.e. no internet access, as they’ll be able to call or text you. However, if they need internet access for additional social and educational purposes, they will need a smartphone.

As a smartphone provides internet access, smartphones also provide more parental control functionalities. Parents can monitor and manage their child’s usage including setting screen time limits, and filter content.

For information on the non-smartphones that we stock and our guidance to parents regarding online see below. To help parents support their children online, we provide practical advice, created with CyberSafeKids, to promote safety and confidence in navigating the digital world.

If so, it’s important to note that the handset must be unlocked so that you can insert any SIM card from any service provider into the device.

If you have an old phone, you have a choice between purchasing a Prepay SIM or taking out a Bill Pay SIM Only Contract – our SIM Only offers here.

With Prepay, its Pay As You Go (PAYG), you need to top up every 28days in order to activate the Plan allowances. With Prepay, there’s no risk of running up high bills. If giving a minor a handset, please ensure to register the account with us and inform Customer Care that a minor will be using the device. By registering, you can use the Tesco Mobile App to monitor and control the account, and you can set limits on mobile data usage or screen time via handset settings.

With Bill Pay Sim Only Contract, there are a number of options here where you can avail of different SIM Only plans that have different minimum terms and allowances – click here. As with all Bill Pay Plans, a Credit Limit is placed on the account, and we would recommend that you contact Customer Care to advise that a minor is using the phone and set the Credit Limit to 0 to avoid any costs above the monthly commitment. This just gives you more control over the spend on the account. See more info on Credit Limit here.

If you are buying a new phone, you have a choice between purchasing a Prepay handset and Prepay Plan or taking out a Bill Pay Contract. It’s worth nothing that we have preferential prices for all Tesco Clubcard customers across both Prepay and Bill Pay.

With Bill Pay, the price of the handsets are significantly subsidised – therefore the price of the handset is dependent on the Bill Pay Plan selected. With our Bill Pay plans, there’s no mid-contract price increase.

Parental controls help you manage and restrict what your kids can see and do online - from sites they can view, to the apps they can download, and purchases they can make. Parental control features and tools are now built into the majority of mobile phones, which makes it even easier to turn on parental controls and limit how much time your child spends online. There is some information on setting up parental controls on Android devices (LG, Sony, Samsung, Huawei, HTC, Nokia, Motorola) here and information on here.

In addition to the parental control settings on handsets, there are also a number of parental control apps available on the App store (Google Play or Apple) which facilitate the blocking or filtering of internet access so that access to internet content can be restricted. We would recommend checking the features available on the device - along with what's available in the App store - and putting the desired controls in place, before giving the mobile phone to a child.

When it comes to when a child should have a smartphone, parents and guardians know best. Tesco Mobile supports parents in their decisions and this includes supporting voluntary agreements they've entered into with schools, specifically primary schools.

Other Useful Resources

Be Safe Online

Ireland's official Online Safety Hub is the government's campaign to highlight ways to help users stay safe online. Visit BE SAFE ONLINE

Cyberbullying

There are a lot of resources out there to help and provide guidance on cyberbullying including the HSE website, Webwise and CyberSafeKids.

Mental Health & Wellbeing

The HSE also provides important information on mental health and wellbeing

Online Safety Framework

Coimisiun na Mean has launched a new Online Safety Code targeted at online platforms to make sure children and adults are protected from harmful or illegal content online know your rights.

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