About
About Online Wise
An independent UK online-safety information service for parents, schools and young people — written by someone who works in a school.
The person behind Online Wise
UK teacher and online safety coordinator
Online Wise is written by a UK teacher and online safety coordinator. The guidance here is grounded in everyday work with families and staff — the apps that actually come up in conversation, the risks that actually materialise, and the settings that actually make a difference.
It exists because most online safety information is either written for compliance, written for a general audience that never arrives, or written to sell something. Online Wise is written for the person who has just been handed a phone by a nine-year-old and asked a direct question.
Every article is written and reviewed editorially, dated, and revised when it goes out of date. Where something is uncertain, the article says so.
What this is
Online Wise explains how the apps, games and services children actually use behave, what the genuine risks are, and what a parent, teacher or young person can practically do about them. It is written in plain British English and assumes no technical knowledge.
What this is not
Online Wise is not a government, regulator, charity, police or NHS service, and has no affiliation with or endorsement from any organisation it links to. It does not monitor or respond to reports about specific children or incidents, and it does not provide legal, medical or safeguarding advice for an individual situation.
Where we are not certain about a factual claim, we say so rather than guess. We do not publish statistics we cannot attribute.
How guidance is written and reviewed
Guidance is written editorially and reviewed on a schedule, because online-safety information goes out of date quickly. Every article shows when it was published, when it was last updated and when it was last reviewed.
Articles that have not been reviewed within our review window are flagged internally for an editor to check. Being flagged does not mean the content is wrong — it means we have not yet confirmed that it is still right.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, out of date or unclear, tell us and we will correct it. Corrections take priority over new content.
Email hello@onlinewise.org.uk. Please do not send details about a specific child or an ongoing incident — we cannot act on them. See Get help for organisations that can.