With most of our video content now being consumed through streaming platforms, the inherent control of the 9pm watershed has disappeared and it can feel increasingly difficult to control what our children are watching online. In School, we are aware that there is often a lot of talk when a new show or game comes to prominence and sometimes the children watch things that perhaps they shouldn’t. This knowledge is then often shared on the playground and can be worrying for parents.

It is certainly true that there are so many different programmes that it can be hard to keep track of what is ok to watch and what is not. Fortunately, the wonderful people at Common Sense Media have provided a whole website full of information about almost every programme out there, giving an overview of the content of not just TV shows, but also films, computer games and other media. It is well worth having a look – https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews.

The other way to control what children are watching is to set up parental controls on streaming apps, such as Netflix. Guides for these can be found at https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/. It is well worth taking a few minutes to look through these guides to ensure that the children are kept as safe as possible.