Online Safety in Fostering is a project aiming to make sure St Christopher’s foster carers and the children they look after have the skills and knowledge to stay safe online.

Funded by Nominet, the project is designed to meet the challenge of “elevating young people’s voices to influence the services that impact on their digital safety and opportunities”.

By consulting with both foster carers and young people, St Christopher’s plans to produce resources that can help each group understand one another’s needs and work together to prioritise online safety.

So far, we have heard directly from foster parents what would help them most:

• Practical resources and tools they can consult at any time if they have any questions, particularly around platforms that are more popular with children and young people.
• Help with keeping up to date with the constantly evolving nature of the internet.
• Mutual support from other foster carers to aid sharing best practice e.g. what measures they have taken to prevent children from accessing unwanted websites.

Activities with children and young people will take place during the half-term holidays to understand their perspectives. These will be co-produced by a young person with experience of foster care, who is acting as a ‘critical friend’ and ensuring young people’s views are central to the project’s final outputs.

We are excited to share our final learning once the project concludes later this year.