Vodafone Parents' Guide

Quick reference

1. How do I set up Parental Controls?
2. How do I know if a website or device is appropriate for my child’s age?
3. Why is it illegal to download music from some websites and not from others?
4. How do I set up a social networking profile?
5. How do I go about choosing a mobile for my child?
6. I’ve tried emailing an article from the Parents’ Guide to a friend but it didn’t work – what can I do?

How do I set up Parental Controls?

According to Ofcom, just over two in five parents of children aged 5-15 say they have internet controls or filtering software in place and one in three households with multichannel television has set up access controls on their TV.

Many of the leading operating systems, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), mobile, games and TV providers offer built-in Parental Controls or access controls to help protect younger users from inappropriate content or potentially harmful behaviour. You should be able to find information about them on their website or by calling their Customer Services team.

If they don’t offer them, you could install Parental Controls, such as Net Nanny, on your computer yourself.

Choosing the right Parental Controls can be confusing so take a look at the GetNetWise website and see what other parents are saying about them on Mumsnet.

Ofcom also provides useful information about Parental Controls for the internet and interactive TV.

The Savvy Citizens website, set up by BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT, contains a useful article about Parental Controls.

How do I know if a website or device is appropriate for my child’s age?

This is often a personal choice for you as a parent as you know your child’s maturity and know what boundaries you need to set. But, to help you, many of the leading internet, mobile, games and social networking providers have minimum age limits for either their whole service (eg you have to be 13 to use Facebook) or sections of it (eg 18+ content is blocked by Vodafone on mobiles registered to minors).

Why is it illegal to download music from some websites and not from others?

Many websites, such as iTunes, offer legal music download services, which ensure that royalties are passed on to the musicians and other relevant parties. Unfortunately, there are also a number of websites and software programmes, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, that offer free music content without the creator’s permission and without rewarding them – if you download unlicensed music from them, you’re breaking the law.

How do I set up a social networking profile?

Go to a social networking website like Facebook and sign up for free. You’ll be asked for personal information, such as your name, email address and date of birth. You can then create a Web page containing information about your hobbies and interests and photos and videos, if you wish, and you can set up contacts or ‘friends’ lists. If you get stuck, go the ‘Help’ section on the social networking website.

How do I go about choosing a mobile for my child?

There are so many mobile handsets and price plans out there, it can be difficult to choose. This checklist that the children’s charity Childnet has put together might be a useful starting point. Speak to your mobile network provider too – they should be able to give you advice about what’s appropriate for children.

I’ve tried emailing an article from the Parents’ Guide to a friend but it didn’t work – what can I do?

If you’d like to use our ‘email this page’ button to forward an article to someone you know, you’ll need to activate a default email application (eg Outlook) on your computer. If you don’t have a default email application set up and you’d prefer to email the article from a work address or a webmail account (eg Hotmail or Yahoo), you could copy and paste the specific URL for the article straight into your email.