Internet, Photographs and Mobile Phones

Different ways of communicating with friends are important to a child/young people and mobile devices and use of social media platforms are now a way of life from an early age. Foster carers have an essential role in helping young people to access the benefits of communication technology in the safest way. Foster carers do not need extensive knowledge and experience of communication technology to be able to help. Everyday parenting skills can be useful, for example, showing an active interest in their friends and interests, providing supervision and boundaries, and talking to young people about keeping safe. There are basic computer and internet awareness courses available if you need to feel more confident.  There are lots of reliable websites that will provide the most up to date information (linked above) and the Fostering Network have published useful guides for foster carers.

When a child comes to live with you, you should be advised whether the internet, photographs and mobile devices contributed towards any abuse or neglect so that you can hold this in mind when planning their use safely. You should ask the child’s social worker for advice and information.

Foster carers should also be aware of and alert to the signs of grooming or coercive behaviour. Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of abuse or exploitation.

If you are concerned that a child/young person is being bullied, groomed or exploited 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 or care plan should identify any risks or issues associated with the use of a computer, mobile phone or gaming equipment particularly in relation to bullying, criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation, radicalisation or other risk-taking behaviours. The safer care plan should identify how safely to manage the risks and how to manage the child’s use of the internet, phones or social media The use of social media/electronic communication as a way of maintaining contact with family and friends should be outlined in the child’s Care Plan (see also Contact (Family Time) Between the Child, their Family and Others Procedure)

Foster carers should encourage and enable safe use of the internet to the best of their ability.  Appropriate parental controls should be installed allowing you to monitor web-browsing histories or to block access to inappropriate material. Foster carers should explain the internet's positive and negative sides to children 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 ground rules/guidelines are:

• Time limits on computers should be agreed collaboratively with the child/young person, the foster carer and the child’s social worker;
• Appropriate internet security must be used on the computers to avoid access to inappropriate material;
• You should set clear ground rules on the use of the internet;
• Computers should be in areas of the house where adults can see what is being looked at rather than in a bedroom;
• If a young person has a laptop, gaming console or mobile phone with internet capability then decide with them where and when they can use it if they are accessing the internet.  Laptops should be provided via the Virtual School if possible;
• You should show an interest in healthy use of the internet and promote its benefits, encouraging children to be open about any concerns or problems;
• Help children set up their security settings on social media sites so that they are appropriate and safe and make it clear that they should never give out their real name, address, phone numbers or any other personal details;
• Explain that because they cannot see or hear the people they chat to over social media, they may not be who they seem, and remind them that strangers on the internet can be just as dangerous as strangers in other face to face settings.  If you become aware that a child is planning to, or has arranged a face-to-face meeting with someone they "meet" on the internet, you must immediately contact the child’s social worker, or if you think a crime is being committed, the police;
• Advise the child that they should never respond to messages that are rude, threatening, or makes them feel uncomfortable, including sharing inappropriate photographs of themselves or others. Encourage the child to talk to you about messages like this and discuss blocking contacts as a form of self-protection. 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;
• Remember and educate children that people online may not be who they say they are.

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

When they do you should try to 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 and you are aware of which sites they have signed up to.

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. Childnet have suggested young people are made aware of the SMART tips:

• Safe – Staying safe involves being careful and not giving out your name, address, mobile phone number, photograph, school name or password to people online;
• Meeting – Some people you have contacted in cyberspace can be dangerous. Only do so with your parent or carer’s permission and when they can be present;
• Accepting – E-mails or opening files from people you don’t really know or trust could get you into trouble - they may contain viruses or dangerous messages;
• Remember – Someone online may be lying and not who they say they are. Stick to public areas in chat rooms and if you feel uncomfortable simply get out;
• Tell – your parent or carer if someone or something makes you feel uncomfortable or worried.

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 Service 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 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.

Children in foster care may be particularly vulnerable to approaches from strangers or people they hardly know, or to extremist or radical ideology, because of their past experiences.  They may feel isolated from their peers or family, or may lack boundaries that would serve to keep them safe.  Being open with them about the potential dangers, and supportive of attempts to improve their skills in staying safer will help them.

‘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 age inappropriate 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. You should help children understand that 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).

Always ask the child’s permission to take pictures or videos (as appropriate for their age and understanding) and make sure they are clear on who will see them and why. The service requires an updated photograph for the child’s file regularly.  Their placement plan should state if there are any restrictions on taking photos and videos and you should ensure you are clear on who can give consent for the child to have their picture taken or be filmed for school etc.

You should try and take photographs regularly of the child/young person to help record their life; to ensure they have memories and to help with any Life Story Work.  See Keeping Memories.

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 without parental controls.

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

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

Foster Carers 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.  Discussions need to be held by the team around the child to explore and plan for the following:

• Age appropriate use of 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? If so what is the agreed time?
• Safety – does the phone have internet access and if so have the carer, social worker and child all agreed 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? Any removal of a phone should be balanced against the need to keep in contact with a child, or the value of the phone for the child in maintaining relationships. Other sanctions should be considered, but if removal of a phone is agreed then it should be for the shortest time possible.
• Where 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, report to the supervising social worker and agree who should inform the child’s social worker. This should be done at the earliest opportunity and action agreed to ensure the child’s safety ongoing. 
• Contact with the child’s family members can sometimes 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 or payment for the phone managed? It is usually the responsibility of the young person to maintain credit for their personal phone with your support.  Foster carers should not usually take out phone contracts for children, including rolling SIM agreements.  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 are not discriminated against simply because they are looked after and they should still be given the same opportunities as their peers whilst being mindful of the safeguarding issues.

Some 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.  Similarly spending limits can be agreed. 

Surrey Fostering Service has developed a policy in respect of foster carers use of social media and the internet.  This outlines guidelines around social media and internet use for prospective and approved Foster Carers and Supported Lodgings carers. This includes providing information about the checks we complete as part of the assessment process, why we complete these checks, and what we consider to be appropriate once approved as foster carer(s) by the Fostering Service.  It can be found here Social Media and Internet Policy for Foster Carers