Parents Advice Hub

  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…

Parenting constantly presents challenges; parenting in an era where children have access to a wide range of digital devices is a new experience for many parents. We regularly receive feedback from parents who attend our seminars and internet safety crash courses, that they are genuinely overwhelmed by the amount of online games, apps and social…

One of the most striking results from our recent Zeeko All Ireland Trend Report was the percentage of children who said that they had spoken to, or played against a stranger online: 54% of 6th class pupils, 46% of 5th class pupils and 42% of 4th class pupils have had contact with a stranger online. These…

Growing up in a digital age poses many challenges; the pressure to communicate via social networks at an earlier and earlier age is certainly one of these. The research from our Zeeko All Ireland Digital Trend Report found that 24% of 5th class pupils and 43% of 6th class pupils are users of Instagram. Snapchat…

Screen time, how much is too much and how to manage it, is a subject that is raised regularly by parents and teachers at our seminars in schools and our parent internet safety crash courses. With the growing number of screens that children now have access to, the time spent on screens can be a…