Digital Resilience Toolkit: 11 – 13 year olds
Practical tips for parents of 11-13 year olds
Help your child adjust to the new challenges they may face at this age such as getting their own smartphone or joining a social network for the first time. See the guide for essential things you can do to support them.
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Building a child’s digital resilience
See tips to help children become more digitally savvy and get the best out of their online world.
What are they doing online?
- Research shows that the average age a child gets a smartphone is age 10 – 11
- 51 % of 12-year-olds have social media accounts
- only one in eight 12-15 yr olds who have seen something worrying or nasty online have reported it
What challenges can they face?
At this age they are socialising online for the first time and building friendship groups which mean they could face issues such as online peer pressure and cyberbullying. They may be exposed to content that is inappropriate for their age, especially if their using devices outside the home that aren’t protected by the correct parental controls.
Children at this developmental stage are more impulsive and so may not be fully conscious that they are creating a digital footprint that will affect them as they grow older.
How to prepare them for challenges
- Have conversations about their online world
- Discuss digital footprint
- Talk about finding their identity and sources of content
- Use Stop, Speak, Support to deal with online challenges
- Talk about what resilience means to them
What happens if things go wrong?
- Try and understand what has gone on and where it has happened
- Show your support and give them confidence that you will deal with it together
- Talk it through openly and validate their feelings about what they have experienced
- Seek to advise from specialist organisation or GP if the situation is serious to give them the best chance to recover and regain confidence