Keep the kids and the household safe

Set the controls once

Every platform has a family mode: Apple Family Sharing, Google Family Link, Microsoft Family Safety. An hour once covers most of it.

• Create the family group and add every device.
• Turn on content filters for younger children.
• Turn on purchase approval for everyone, so a game cannot bill your card without you saying yes.
• Set screen-time limits on every device and the router, if yours offers them.

The app they actually use

Whatever app your child spends the most time in is the one to check, together, not the one you worry about most.

The NSPCC and Internet Matters both publish plain-English guides per app with the exact settings.

• Make the account private.
• Turn off location sharing.
• Find out together who can message them, and change it if the answer is "anyone".
• Lock down a child's first phone before you hand it over; it takes ten minutes.

Then have the conversation

Teach the same three words you use yourself: urgent, secret, pay. Secrecy, "you've won", "pay to claim", and any link that leads to a payment are the red flags. Agree one rule: if anything online feels urgent, secret, or asks for anything, that is the moment to come and tell you, and they will never be in trouble for doing so.

Agree family rules, and a "check with me first" habit for links and payments. Tech plus talking beats either alone.

Older relatives

For most of us the person most likely to be caught is a parent. Tell them the three words, and agree the call-back rule between you: anything that asks for money or a code, hang up and call back on a number you already have. If a call claims to be the bank, hang up and dial 159.