Most contact from strangers can be quietly switched off in the settings, and the rest comes down to one thing you can teach your child in a single sentence.
Settings that limit who can reach your child
Games, chat and social apps all have controls that decide who can message, follow or add your child. Go through the main apps they use and set these where they exist.
- Accounts set to private, so only approved people can follow or see posts.
- Messages and friend or follow requests limited to people they already know, or turned off from strangers.
- In games, voice and text chat restricted to friends, and party invites from strangers blocked.
- Comments and tagging limited, so unknown accounts cannot start conversations under posts.
- Each app’s family or safety centre reviewed together, as many now bundle these controls in one place.
The single most useful thing to teach
Here is the one rule that catches most trouble early: anyone who wants to move the chat to a private app is the red flag. Someone your child met in a game or a comment section who says « add me on a different app so we can talk properly » is trying to get away from the place where you, and the platform, can see what is happening.
That does not mean everyone is dangerous. It means that particular move is worth pausing on, every time, no matter how friendly or fun the person has been.
The « come to me » rule
Children stay quiet when they fear losing their phone or getting told off. So make the deal explicit and say it more than once: if anything online worries you, come to me and you will not be in trouble. You are on their side, and you will sort it out together.