Online safety

Where to start

If something has happened to your child online, this is a safeguarding conversation before it is anything else.

• The designated safeguarding lead at your child’s school. Every school has one, by law. They are trained for exactly this conversation and they have the routes a parent does not. As soon as you have a concern about a child’s safety. Ask for them by role; you do not have to explain yourself to the office first.
• The NSPCC helpline, for adults worried about a child. A line for the adult who is not sure whether what they have noticed is serious. You do not need to be certain, and you can call anonymously. When something has been said or seen and you do not know what to do with it. They will tell you whether it needs to go further, and help you take that step. Helpline 0808 800 5000, Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm Email help@nspcc.org.uk, read 11am to 4pm, seven days a week; a message sent while the service is closed is not received. If it is closed and the concern cannot wait, call the police on 101, or contact the child’s local children’s social care, social work or social services team. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. www.nspcc.org.uk
• Your child’s school. The pastoral lead, the head of year, or the form tutor. Free, already knows your child, and often the fastest route to a change that helps. Before or alongside anything else. A school cannot act on what it has not been told, and what you bring is often what it did not have.

For online safety

• Internet Matters. The UK’s leading not-for-profit on children’s online safety. Co-founded by BT, Sky and other major UK ISPs. Their parent guides on AI tools, algorithmic feeds, and platform-specific settings are the cleanest practical primer we know. When a parent needs concrete handles on AI tools, social media platforms, gaming, screen time, or device controls. Their age-banded guides are particularly useful for parents new to a category. www.internetmatters.org
• UK Safer Internet Centre. The UK’s hub for online-safety guidance, run by a partnership of three charities. Their parent-facing pages on age-banded online safety are clear, calm and current. When the chapter is about the everyday textures of online life, age-by-age platform guidance, or the parent who wants a UK-anchored, evidence-based primer that is not pitched at the crisis end. The Professionals Online Safety Helpline is open to parents and is, in my experience, a particularly useful line for situations that are serious but not criminal. Call cost depends on your phone package, so it may not be free. Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, email only saferinternet.org.uk
• CEOP ThinkUKnow. The UK police’s national online safeguarding programme, delivered by the National Crime Agency. The right place for parents to report online sexual abuse, grooming, or any concern that may be a criminal matter. Any chapter where the online concern has tipped into something that may be criminal: sharing of intimate images, an adult contact who has been requesting personal information or images, sustained grooming patterns. The parents pages also carry age-by-age primers on what children are doing online, which I send parents to when they want a reliable, non-moralising overview from a source they can trust. To report something, use the CEOP Safety Centre at ceop.police.uk/safety-centre. The advice for families is at thinkuknow.co.uk. www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
• Internet Watch Foundation. The UK hotline for reporting child sexual abuse imagery online. Anonymous, free, and the right place when a parent has found something that needs to be removed from the internet. When the parent has discovered, on a child’s device or sent to a child, imagery that is illegal: sexual images of a child, including images of the child themselves. IWF will work to have the image removed. The report is anonymous; the parent does not need to identify themselves or the child. The 999 route is for immediate danger and ongoing abuse; the IWF route is for the image itself. The IWF takes down the image. Reporting the person who sent it goes to CEOP or the police, and the two usually need to run together. www.iwf.org.uk
• NSPCC. The UK’s leading child-protection charity. The right signpost any time the chapter touches on a child being harmed. Any chapter where safeguarding may be live, where a parent suspects abuse, or where the chapter touches on online safety. The adult helpline is the right line for parents; Childline is the line for children themselves. NSPCC Helpline (for adults) 0808 800 5000 · Mon-Fri 10am-4pm by phone; email 11am-4pm, seven days a week. An email sent when the service is closed is not received. · If the NSPCC service is closed and the concern cannot wait, call the police on 101. You can also contact the child’s local out-of-hours children’s social care, social work or social services team. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. www.nspcc.org.uk

If you are considering private therapy

Waiting lists are long. If you can meet the cost, a registered therapist can usually be seen in weeks rather than months. Both registers below are accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, which is the thing to check before anything else.

• BACP Therapist Directory. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s public register. Search by area, by what you are bringing, and by whether the therapist works with children. www.bacp.co.uk/search/Therapists
• NCPS Therapist Directory. The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society’s register. Every therapist listed is qualified, supervised, insured, and accountable to a code of ethics. ncps.com/find-a-counsellor
• Kensington Square Therapy. Our own practice. We work with children, young people and parents, in the room at 23 Kensington Square, online, and inside schools we partner with. www.kst.ltd

What to look for in a therapist, what a first session is like, and the questions worth asking before you commit, are set out at theparentbook.com/finding-a-therapist

Everything else

The full directory, across every subject, is at theparentbook.com/services. If a number here has changed, please tell us at hello@theparentbook.com and we will correct it.