Do you know what your teen views online? Or what they upload to the internet? And if they've encountered cyberbullying or pornography?

Parents wanting to know how to communicate and educate safe internet use to their youth – and find some comfort and strategies to use – are invited to attend a free event this month.

Tauranga Girls' College teacher Janet Reddy and Safe Surfer co-founder Rory Birkbeck are inviting parents to ‘Keeping our whanau safe in the digital surf'.

The two free interactive information evenings will talk about the positives and negatives of teen surfing online at Tauranga Girls' College library on November 7-8 from 7pm-8pm.

The pair say the event is focused around having the conversation of how teens use the internet and talking education and strategy to combat issues and negatives situations arising.

'It's all about getting parents a little bit more savvy and feeling a bit more comfortable and aware of what teenagers are doing online,” says Janet.

Rory, who has co-founded the non-profit social enterprise Safe Surfer with friend Aaron Sinclair, says there's a big hole when parents look for help with teenage internet use.

'About 12 months ago I refocused my IT career because I did a lot of volunteer work with young people and I could see there was over sexualised behaviour happening at younger ages,” says Rory, who has based Safe Surfer in Tauranga.

'For me the key driver was around pornography – and so myself and Aaron set up a social enterprise called Safe Surfer about six months ago with our IT skills.

'In about three months with Safe Surfer we've taken on about 2500 families from around the world.”

Rory says the purpose of Safe Surfer is giving parents solutions to remove access to pornography from children.

'I talk to a lot of parents – particularly in the Bay – and all have stories of how their children were searching for something innocent, and Google gave them back something sinister. 'Technology is moving fast, most children have smartphones and access to high speed internet.”

Safe Surfer blocks harmful websites using tools such as Google SafeSearch and YouTube restrictions. Any computer or device connected to Wi-Fi or broadband is then unable to access inappropriate websites or videos.

'It's easy to use as there's no need to install or update software.” Safe Surfer also provides additional protection against phishing, malware websites and internet attacks as well. 'This means the Internet is no longer the wild, wild west for children.”

Rory says the evening will cover the online technology parents don't know about, how to make common-sense boundaries for online use 'and also talking about some of the scenarios that are actually taking place – and seeing how we can avoid those”.

So do parents know what their teens are doing online? Janet says it's a real mix. 'But what we want to do is push education. So keeping connection going between parents and teens and keep pushing education so teenagers are making informed choices because they've still got to make the choice.

'So in the first instance it's about making sure parents have some strategies in place, so they can support their children but in some way feel supported themselves to find tools that will work for their families.

Rory hopes by partnering Safe Surfer's approach with TGC's community the event will offer parents a more rounded approach to keeping teens safe online.

'The key is the collaborative part of the evening – we use a lot of tools to make it really collaborative; every family is different, they decide what strategies will work best.

And Janet says it's key to realise that teenagers do take risks. 'And they're taking out their risks online – so it's about having the conversations and understand what's out there and having tools or strategies.

'And educating teens to make sure they make the smart choices – such as how they create their digital footprint.”

Janet hopes this will be an ongoing initiative. 'The conversations have got to keep happening – and while this is about online issues we would also like to tackle sexting, cyberbullying, all the while talking about people's digital citizenship.”

'It's something we'd like to see continue.”

Rory agrees. 'Events are a key strategy for Safe Surfer – we want to make a real difference in Tauranga. We want Tauranga to be a leading ‘safe city' to young people online.”

‘Keeping our whanau safe in the digital surf' is a free event at Tauranga Girls' College on November 7-8 from 7pm-8pm.