Internet safety for kids: a simple guide by age

What is the one rule for every age?

If something online feels odd, scary or too good to be true, stop and tell a grown-up you trust.

Every other rule in this guide is a version of that one. It works for a three-year-old who sees something upsetting on a tablet and for a fifteen-year-old who gets a threatening message at midnight. It only works if the grown-up responds calmly, so the second half of the rule is for you: when they tell you, thank them first.

What do under-5s need to know?

Very little about the internet and a lot about you. At this age, safety means a grown-up is there. Use screens together, choose what they watch, and keep devices in shared rooms.

The World Health Organization recommends no sedentary screen time for babies and 1-year-olds, and no more than 1 hour a day at age 2, with the same limit for 3 to 4-year-olds, and says less is better. Our guide to reducing screen time without a fight has ideas that work at this age.

What do 5 to 7-year-olds need to know?

Simple rules they can say out loud, and one question to carry everywhere: is it real? Let's ask!

• Screens are used where a grown-up can see.
• My name, my school and where I live are just for my family.
• If a screen asks me to keep a secret, I tell a grown-up.
• If something looks odd, I ask: could that really happen?

Our Little Safety Spotters picture books are written for exactly this age, one idea per story.

What do 7 to 11-year-olds need to know?

This is the age of first games with chat, first group chats and often a first phone. Rules now need reasons, because children start meeting situations no rule covered.

Teach them that people online are not always who they say they are, that a rush is a warning sign, that passwords are like house keys, and that photos of other people belong to those people. Talk about scam texts and game chat scams, because they will meet both. Our chapter books for this age follow Maya and Dev through exactly these situations.

What do 11 to 16-year-olds need to know?

Teenagers need the why, the trust and a way back. They will meet AI companions, convincing fakes and, for some, sextortion attempts. Nearly three in four US teens have already tried an AI companion, and almost half of children aged 8 to 15 believe they have seen a deepfake.

Talk about these directly, before they happen. Above all, make sure your teenager knows that if something goes badly wrong, such as a photo shared or a threat received, coming to you will make it better and not worse. That one promise does more than any filter.

What should parents do at every age?

• Keep talking, little and often, rather than one big talk.
• Learn the apps they use by asking them to show you.
• Use parental controls as a backstop, not a babysitter.
• Model it: children copy what we do with our own phones.

Our Family Online Safety Figures page collects the latest numbers from official sources if you want to see how fast things are changing.

Try this at home or in class

Make a family online safety poster together, with one rule each from every person in the house, grown-ups included. Put it where devices get charged. Our free Family Device Audit is a good next step once the rules are agreed.