Internet Safety Rules for Kids

Rules a child can actually follow, at the age each becomes meaningful. The important thing about this list is the last section, which explains why rules alone stop working at exactly the point they matter most.

Under about seven

The rules here are for the adult, not the child. Devices in shared rooms, content chosen rather than searched, autoplay off, no open comment sections. A child this age cannot evaluate what they meet, so the design of the environment is the whole intervention.

The one rule worth teaching directly: come and get me if anything is confusing or upsetting, and you will not be in trouble.

Seven to eleven

• Personal details stay private: full name, school, address, phone number, and photographs that show any of them.
• People online are not always who they say. Explained plainly and without drama.
• Never arrange to meet somebody from online. Tell me instead if they suggest it.
• Ask before downloading or installing anything.
• If something is upsetting, leave it and tell me. Not close it and hide it.
• Be someone you would be happy for me to see being. Better than a rule about kindness, because it is checkable.

Eleven and up

• Anything sent can be kept and forwarded. Including things that promise to disappear.
• Never send images of yourself, and tell me if you are asked. Say explicitly that you will help rather than punish. Fear of the reaction is the main reason this goes unreported.
• Blocking and reporting are normal. Show them where the buttons are rather than describing them.
• Check what a thing is before believing it. Who made this, and what do they get from me seeing it.
• Passwords are not shared, including with friends.

Why rules stop being enough

Because by thirteen or fourteen, a child has more access than you can restrict, more skill at routing around restrictions than most parents expect, and a social life that lives on those platforms. Rules that depend on control fail quietly at that point, and the failure is invisible.

What continues to work is the relationship. Specifically, whether a child believes they can bring you a problem without losing their phone, being shouted at, or being told they should have known better.

That belief is built years earlier, on smaller things. The single most protective sentence available to you is that you will help first and be angry later if at all, said before anything has happened and then honoured the first time it is tested.

If you are worried about a specific situation, contact your local child protection service or a specialist online safety helpline.