Parents Advice Hub

It is sometimes interesting to reflect on how modern childhood will be viewed in 30 years. It certainly will be remembered as very different from the childhoods of decades ago. A virtually erasable digital footprint, spending increasing amounts of time online and dealing with a whole new form of peer pressure that relates to social…

  Our blog this week focuses on something that parents of teenagers can rightly be very concerned about; sexting. Sexting is the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive messages, images or videos. Sexting  usually happens in a very immediate way via text, email, video, or instant messaging. Teenagers usually engage in sexting…

  Cyberbullying and its continued rise is a growing concern to parents and teachers throughout the country. Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon has recently said that cyberbullying is ‘one of the biggest challenges facing Irish schools’ and has called for stronger legislation to protect children in relation to this specific type…

  When we visit schools throughout the country to talk about kids on Youtube and  staying safe online, we regularly hear from children, their parents and teachers that YouTube is increasingly popular. When we asked kids what their favourite games and apps and social media sites are, as part of our Zeeko All Ireland Digital Trend…

  Snapchat is becoming increasingly popular among preteens and children. It is particularly popular app among children in fourth class and upwards. Essentially children can use Snapchat to send pictures and/or videos to their friends, who are also using Snapchat. The photo or video disappears in a chosen time between 1 and 10 seconds. Many…

  One of the most popular devices used in homes throughout Ireland is the iPad. It is certainly something that has made online connectivity a part of day to day life. Often children as young as 18 months can know how to swipe the screen to activate the iPad. Ipads are increasingly becoming a central…

    Have you ever seen an incident or accident when you’re out shopping and thought that somebody else would deal with it? Well, essentially this is the bystander effect. Everybody thinks someone else is going to act. Increasingly, the bystander effect is playing a large role in how children communicate when they are online.…

  One of the biggest challenges facing both adults and children alike is trying to create a balance between time spent online and time spent away from the Internet. This can be quite a challenge! From our work with children in primary schools throughout Ireland we hear from them that they are sometimes not even…

When we visit primary schools throughout Ireland to talk to children about staying safe online, we hear from them that they are using a range of devices to access the internet. Research from our recent Zeeko All Ireland Digital Trend Report found that 67% of third class pupils and 62% of fourth class pupils used…

One of the questions we are asked most regularly at our parent seminars relates to how parents can ensure that their child is safe online, when they are not at home or under parents supervision. This is definitely a challenge and is certainly a concern. The opportunities for children to access inappropriate content or potentially…

We have talked about our Zeeko Glossary in our blog recently and have shared it on our social media platforms. It got such a great reaction we think it deserves a blog all of its own so here it is in full! #KidsSafeOnline Keep up to date with our work at Zeeko by following us…

For the last number of weeks we have been sharing the Zeeko Glossary on our social media channels. The Zeeko Glossary is a set of terms that offers parents a way of understanding the lingo that their children are using when they are communicating digitally. The terms are literally a whole new world! Parents and…