Internet, Photographs and Mobile Phones

Different ways of communicating with friends are important to a child/young people and are now a way of life from an early age. When a child is placed with you, find out their background and whether the internet, photographs and mobile phones contributed towards any abuse so that you can plan their use safely for all children but particularly those where it has been an issue. You should ask the child's social worker for advice and information.

Your knowledge of different media will vary but it is important that foster carers develop their understanding of different electronic devices, the internet and social media, and that you learn how to safeguard children when using the internet and mobile devices. Foster carers should also be aware of and alert to the signs of grooming behaviour. Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse or exploitation.

If you are concerned that a child/young person is being bullied over the internet or phone, you should talk to them about it, record what is happening in the daily record and speak to the child's social worker as soon as possible.

The placement plan should identify any risks or issues associated with the use of a computer, mobile phone or gaming equipment particularly in relation to bullying, sexual exploitation, radicalisation or other risk-taking behaviours and where appropriate assess the risk and how safely to manage the child or young person's use. The use of social media/electronic communication as a way of maintaining Family Time with family and friends should be outlined in the child’s Care Plan (see also Family Time Between the Child, their Family and Others Procedure)

Protecting Your Data, Your Personal Information and Your Identity

Without the right protection in place, your electronic devices could potentially be misused by someone in the Foster Carer’s household. This could include:

• The devise becoming infected with a virus, losing important data and documents or crashing;
• Gaining access to the Foster’s Carers own personal information which could lay them open to fraud;
• Downloading inappropriate materials;
• Accessing confidential information;
• Adopting a fake identity on a social networking site;
• Giving information out about where you will be at a particular time.

Some of these are simply a nuisance, but others are illegal activities.

This means that Foster Carers and other household members need to ensure that they use appropriate caution, employ passwords where necessary, and that they are aware of what their devices are being used for by people in their household.

Your Own and Your Family’s Use of Social Networking Sites

Foster Carers themselves may well want to use social networking sites like Facebook to keep in touch with their own family and friends. You need to think carefully about the possible ramifications for yourself and any Children or Young People in placement. There have been instances of families linked to the Child or Young Person identifying foster families through websites like Facebook, so anyone involved with Children or Young People who are fostered need to be aware of the implications of social networking and the need to protect personal information and use privacy settings appropriately.

Foster Carers should not make information publicly available about the fact that they are a Foster Carer, and should never post online information or photographs of Children or Young People they look after.

There is a risk for a Foster Carer who uses social networking sites that they might inadvertently reveal information about a Child or Young Person they are looking after or information about their home and location. Foster Carers must maintain confidentiality of Children and Young People in their care at all times. Breaching confidentiality will jeopardise the registration of the Foster Carer and could have serious safeguarding risks for Children or Young People in placement. Foster Carers should never make links with a Child or Young person’s birth parents, or other family members of the Child or Young Person, via social networking.

Children and Young People often ‘friend’ each other automatically, but Foster Carers need to consider carefully the possible implications of their own Children ‘friending’ Children and Young People in placement. There is a risk that the Foster Carers own Children might compromise the privacy of a Child or Young Person in placement, for example, if they are communicating with or sharing photographs with their own friends via social networking sites. This could also happen if they stay in touch, via Facebook or other social networking sites, with a Child or Young Person who has moved on. Foster Carers need to discuss with their own Children and make clear what is and is not acceptable.

Foster Carers need to be careful about protecting their online identity and not put any contact information on their profile. They also need to tell family and friends not to post anything on their wall which could identify them as Foster Carers, identify a Child or Young Person or otherwise give out information about them.

Foster Carers also need to consider the implications of being ‘tagged’ in photographs (this means your name is digitally attached to photographs in which you appear).

If the Child or Young Person brings their own laptop/mobile and electronic devices

Some Children and Young People come into placement with their electronic devices. Exercising control over these should be discussed and agreed between the Social Worker of the Child or Young Person, the Child or Young Person’s birth parents (where appropriate), and Foster Carers, and this needs to be considered as part of the care planning process.

Even if this equipment is the Child or Young Person’s property, the Foster Carer should feel able to set rules that keep the Child or Young Person safe. Foster Carers also need to have the confidence to put safer care guidelines and boundaries in place around the use of this equipment.

Meetings about the Care Plan and Placement Plan should fully consider the Child or Young Person’s use of the Internet and social networking sites.

This needs to be decided by full and careful discussion about the Child or Young Person’s needs, abilities, emotional maturity, attitudes and previous experiences. They are too important to be left up to one person’s personal opinion about the risks or otherwise of the Internet.

Risk assessments should consider areas such as:

• Whether the Child or Young Person is known or believed to be vulnerable online and whether mobile phone use and social networking pose any risks;
• If it is a protected placement, is there any indication that parents or others may try to trace the Child or Young Person;
• Have the parents or other family members caused concerns for previous Foster Carers, such as making threats;
• Do parents have a Facebook or other social networking site;
• Has the Child or Young Person ever been bullied or bullied others online;
• Have they ever been known to access inappropriate online material or met up with people they have met online.

You should try and take part in a child’s web browsing particularly for a new child in placement; school homework is an ideal opportunity for this. Explain the web's positive and negative sides and tell them that if they are not sure about a site they should talk to you. Children should not be permitted to use sites that are also used by adults unless a risk assessment has been carried out, in consultation with the social worker. These arrangements must be outlined in the child's Placement Plan and must be reviewed regularly.

Some useful guidelines are:

• Time limits on computers should be agreed with the child/young person;
• Appropriate internet security should be used on the computers to avoid access to inappropriate material;
• You should set clear ground rules on the use of the internet;
• You should open and check applications to ensure they do not have chatroom settings and they are as expected;
• If a young person has a laptop then decide with them where and when they can use it if they are accessing the internet;
• You should show an interest in the internet and encourage young people to be open about any concerns or problems;
• Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they "meet" on the internet without first speaking to the child's social worker;
• The child should never respond to messages that are rude, threatening, or makes them feel uncomfortable. Encourage the child to talk to you about messages like this. If the child receives a message or sees something on-line that you are concerned about keep a copy and make a note in the daily record;
• Note that some electronic devises allow a chat facility, where your child or young person may be able to contact those that may cause them risk or harm and or they are not permitted to have contact with;
• Remember that people online may not be who they say they are;
• Ensure the computer/other devices are facing outwards and located in the living room or an area which can be viewed by the Foster Carer;
• Ensure that you have proper safety controls on your computer/other devices. Check out blocking and filtering to enable Foster Carers to block sites deemed inappropriate;
• Acknowledge that Children and Young People in foster care who have experienced past trauma or low self-esteem can be more vulnerable to the dangers associated with the Internet;
• Try to understand what a Child or Young Person is doing online through becoming involved in their sessions, and ask them to guide you in understanding social networking sites and the Internet. Do not be afraid to ask a Child or Young Person for their help in understanding new applications and the language used;
• Regularly check the computers/other devices history and sites visited;
• Develop a family agreement which is specific to the family or individual Child or Young Person (this can be incorporated into the safer caring plan);
• Accept you own lack of knowledge in understanding the Internet;
• Obtain parental/Social Worker consent for allowing Children or Young People to use social networking sites;
• Do not encourage the use of webcams;
• Ensure Children and Young People are supervised when using computers or other devices;
• Never allow a Child or Young Person to meet anyone they have met online. If you become aware of any arrangement, contact the Child or Young Person’s Social Worker immediately and the Police.

Teaching the child to be cautious is important and can help when they start to use social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

When they do you should ensure the child's profile and postings contain nothing that might expose their identity or whereabouts.

You should go through the site's terms and conditions, explaining them to the child - it's important you both understand them.

You should try to equip the child with the skills to decide who to trust, even when they have not met the person face-to-face and talk to the child/young person about what makes a real friend.

You should be aware and understand the risks that using the internet may pose for children, such as bullying, sexual exploitation and radicalisation. The Fostering Agency should have well-developed strategies to support you in keeping children safe and to support and provide you with appropriate learning around internet safety. 

You should be aware of and alert to indicators of grooming behaviour and possible sexual exploitation.

Social networking sites are websites where you can create a profile all about yourself and contact other people. You can also upload photos, music and videos to share with other people, and on some sites, chat to other people on forums. Popular social networking websites include Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter but there are others.

Social networking sites are often used by perpetrators as an easy way to access children and young people for sexual abuse. The Serious Crime Act (2015) introduced an offence of sexual communication with a child. This applies to an adult who communicates with a child and the communication is sexual or if it is intended to elicit from the child a communication which is sexual and the adult reasonably believes the child to be under 16 years of age. The Act also amended the Sex Offences Act 2003, it is an offence for an adult to arrange to meet with someone under 16 having communicated with them on just one occasion (previously it was on at least two occasions).

Radical and extremist groups may use social networking to attract children and young people into narrow ideologies that are intolerant of diversity: this is similar to the grooming process and exploits the same vulnerabilities. The groups concerned include those linked to extreme Islamist, or Far Right/Neo Nazi ideologies, extremist Animal Rights groups and others who justify political, religious, sexist or racist violence. 

Children may be drawn to adopt a radical ideology through a failure to appreciate the bias in extremist material; in addition by repeated viewing of extreme content they may come to view it as normal.

'Internet Abuse' relates to four main areas of abuse to children:

• Abusive images of children (although these are not confined to the Internet);
• A child or young person being groomed for the purpose of Sexual Abuse;
• Exposure to pornographic or other offensive material via the Internet; and
• The use of the internet, and in particular social media, to engage children in extremist ideologies.

It should be noted that creating or sharing explicit images of a child is illegal, even if the person doing it is a child. A young person is breaking the law if they:

• Take an explicit photo or video of themselves or a friend;
• Share an explicit image or video of a child, even if it's shared between children of the same age;
• Possess, download or store an explicit image or video of a child, even if the child gave their permission for it to be created.

However, if a young person is found creating or sharing images, the police can choose to record that a crime has been committed but that taking formal action is not in the public interest.

The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new criminal offences including:

• Sending a message with information the sender knows to be false with the intention of causing non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience without reasonable excuse;
• Sending a message with a threat of death, serious injury, rape or serious financial loss where the sender intends the recipient to fear that threat will be carried out (or is reckless as to whether the recipient has such fear);
• Sending or showing an electronic communication with flashing images with the intention to cause harm to a person with epilepsy;
• Communicating, publishing or showing material capable (and with the intention) of encouraging or assisting the serious self-harm of another, even if the sender cannot identify the recipients and even if the self-harm does not occur;
• Intentionally sending or giving images of any person’s genitals to another person with the intention to cause the recipient alarm, distress or humiliation, or for the purposes of sexual gratification whilst reckless as to whether the recipient will be caused alarm, distress or humiliation;
• Four offences in relation to intentional sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent, which do not necessarily require proof that the sender intended to cause alarm, distress or humiliation. (This replaces the previous offences relating to so-called ‘revenge porn’ where there was a requirement for an intention to cause distress).

A Family Agreement should cover the following areas:

• Acceptable use, personal safety, health and safety, and what to do should things go wrong.

Ideally the family agreement should be situated beside the computer/other devices.

An example of a Family Agreement could include the following:

• No one is allowed to visit pornographic, racist or any hate-motivated or inappropriate websites. If a Child or Young Person accidentally stumbles upon any, they should tell the Foster Carer immediately so they can delete it from the 'history' folder;
• It is not allowed to use abusive or threatening language in chat or any other online communication;
• No one should visit the private areas of chat-rooms – only visit moderated chat-rooms;
• Agree time limits for online usage (this can be extended according to age and responsibility);
• Children and Young People should not download unknown files from the Internet without the agreement of their Foster Carer. It is advisable to never download unknown files at all;
• No one is allowed to download, burn to CD and pass on any music, images or movies downloaded from the Internet without agreement;
• Children and Young People should only use child-friendly search engines.

Remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’ family code. Just ensure you cover all the areas to maximise the safety of a Child or Young Person.

Let Children and Young People Know You Will Not Hold Them Responsible if it is Not Their Fault

It is important that Children and Young People in your care feel they can come to you if they get out of their depth.

If Children and Young People are afraid that adults will ban them from using the Internet when they are having problems, they may keep things secret rather than ask for help.

Supporting Foster Carers

The challenges and opportunities of social networking will be addressed in:

• Training for Foster Carers;
• Ongoing supervision and support for Foster Carers;
• Child or Young Person’s Care Plan/Placement Plan and review;
• Family Time arrangements – including online and social networking contact;
• Safer Caring Plans.

If it is OK to take pictures or videos always ask the child's permission first and make sure they are clear on who will see them and why.

You should try and take photographs regularly of the child/young person to help record their life; it may also help when putting together their Life Story book. See Keeping Memories.

You should be clear on who can give consent for the child to have their picture taken or be filmed for school etc.

Mobile phones and some apps offer text messaging, taking pictures, sending and receiving them, sending and receiving video clips and sound tracks, as well as access to the internet which means a child can download pictures and videos.

With a camera phone a child/young person can also send pictures of themselves, friends and where they live, which can have security implications for some Children in Care.

It may be useful to encourage young people to share details of how they communicate with others and an agreement reached between the young person, social worker and foster carer about how safely to do this.

You need to be aware that most mainstream Social Networking sites impose a minimum age limit of 13 on their membership. This includes Facebook. It is therefore not appropriate for children under 13 years old to use social networking sites which are also used by adults.

• Age appropriate use of the phones – Can the child take their phone to school? Do they need to hand in their phone at the end of the evening before they go to bed?
• Safety – does the phone have internet access and if so have the carer, social worker and child all signed the contract to agree that the carer will periodically check the phone for appropriate and safe usage? If the agreement has been made that the phone will not be checked document why;
• Where there are concerns about the use of the phone, you should report them to the child's social worker and discuss appropriate sanctions – should the phone be removed?
• Where it is considered and evidence is available to suggest that the child's mobile phone is placing the child at risk, the phone can be removed as an immediate measure. If this situation occurs, reporting to the supervising social worker or support worker and discussions about who should inform the child's social worker should be done at the earliest opportunity and action to remedy this situation taken. This should be recorded within the contract;
• Contact with birth families can often be the source of distress and upset. If the use of a mobile phone affects contact negatively with family this should be reported and consideration given to what measures can be taken by the child's social worker to address this;
• How is the credit for the phone managed? It is the responsibly of the young person to maintain credit for their personal phone with your support. Consideration should be given to pocket money, activities and any part time working undertaken by the young person. Appropriate support to encourage ordinary ‘teenage behaviour’ in relation to current mobile phone communication should be considered carefully. It is imperative that Children in Care are not discriminated against simply because they are in the care system and they should still be given the same opportunities as their peer groups whilst being mindful of the safeguarding issues.

Mobile phone network providers operate a barring and filtering mechanism to prevent those under 18 years accessing 18 rated content. The service can be provided for both contract and pay as you go phones. You are advised to explore this with the network provider that a child/young person uses or see what other services they offer. Often safeguarding boards can provide information on dangerous apps and so it may be that the child’s Independent Reviewing Officer can provide current information and advice.

In 2021 the police issued the following as the top 15 apps a parent should be aware of, as we know technology is consistently growing and evolving and although these are useful they are not an extensive representation and therefore shared to provide basic information to carers.

See Internet Matters Guide to Apps