The Things I Wish My Parents Had Known
The Children’s Commissioner has compiled a useful guide to help parents and carers in discussing online sexual harassment with their children: “The Things I Wish My Parents Had Known” draws together advice from teenagers about how parents should manage tricky conversations around sexual harassment and access to inappropriate content, including pornography. Although this guidance will be most useful to the parents of secondary school-age children, you will see that the overriding message from the young contributors is 'talk early, talk often'. They suggest broaching topics before a child is given a phone or a social media account, which is often around the age of 9 or 10. The children are asking for age‑appropriate conversations that evolve over time in line with their growing maturity; they want their mums and dads to create a safe, judgment‑free space for them to talk about these issues.