All I want for Christmas… is a Wii U?!

17 Dec 2014 UK SIC

If this sounds like Christmas in your household, you’ve come to the right place!

With technology at the top of many young people’s Christmas wishlists this year, we’ve launched new guides covering the latest devices to help parents stay up to date with the latest tech.

Our new and updated guides cover popular devices such as the iPad, iPod Touch, Kindle Fire, iPhone, WiiU, PS4 and Xbox One to help parents get to grips with the safety tools available. These are all available at www.saferinternet.org.uk/parent-tech.

The accompanyingParents’ Guide to Technology provides further advice about the benefits, capabilities and potential risks of smartphones, gaming devices and tablets, with lots of great tips about how to help young people have a safe and fun time when using technology. Learn how you can disable internet browsing or put in place timers that restrict how long your children can play devices for.

Recent research from Ofcom shows that the majority of young people aged 5-15 have access to technology at home, with 7 in 10 having access to a tablet, and 8 in 10 with a games console at home, and this figure looks set to increase after Christmas!

To help families have a fun and festive time, here’s our top tech tips this Christmas:

  • Use our shopper’s checklist to help you ask the right questions if you’re buying tech this Christmas
  • Get to grips with the device and set up any parental controls before wrapping it up and putting it under the Christmas tree!
  • Enjoy the technology together with your children – perhaps they can show you their favourite app, or you can play a game together? By staying engaged you can be there to remind them about the importance of staying safe, and they’ll know they can turn to you if anything worries them.

We hope you have a fun Christmas!