Dr Justin Coulson: Three easy steps to guide your child through online safely

What would you do if you caught your child looking at an explicit online site? The worst thing you can do is panic, says Dr Justin Coulson. Instead, he offers three easy steps to help you and your child navigate the online world safely.

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Q A few weeks ago we found our 10-year-old son looking at an explicit website on his iPad. He says he found it accidentally when he was looking for games and we believe him. We definitely don’t want him looking at those kinds of sites, accidentally or not, so we’ve set up parental controls. But not sure it’s the best way to help our son learn the right thing to do.

This is a dilemma of modern parenthood.

As parents, we need to guide our children’s online experiences, allowing them to experience technology while fiercely guarding their wellbeing.

We also need to ensure they are developing the skills to make good choices — both in the offline and the online world.

We want to let them explore, but we need to protect them. How do we do both?

It is worth having internet filters in place? These may help prevent your child from accidentally stumbling onto explicit content.

A new study shows that one in five youths are seeing unwanted sexual material online.

In reality, it’s probably far higher — because often kids don’t like to admit this stuff. So anything we can do to prevent this is a step in the right direction.

Dr Coulson says parents must allow their children to experience technology for themselves, while also guarding their wellbeing.