If you’re visiting the WCA for help and advice about something that you don’t want anyone to know about, these tips will help you keep your visit private.
Top 3 tips for staying safe online
- use privacy settings to control who sees your information. But don’t count on them. Once information is posted online, it’s out of your control
- tell an adult you trust if anything makes you feel upset, scared or uncomfortable
- don’t meet up with people you’ve met online – not everyone is who they say they are.
THE ‘HIDE PAGE’ BUTTON
When viewing the WCA website on a desktop, every page on our website has an orange ‘X’ button on the right hand side. When you click, you’ll be immediately taken to Google’s homepage.
If you’re using a computer in a public place, or somewhere that someone might see which website you are visiting, you can use this button to hide what you are doing quickly.
Remember someone can still click on the back button on your browser to see which site you were visiting, so if you want to hide your visit to the WCA completely, you should close your browser by clicking on the ‘X’ button in the top right hand corner of your page and clear your internet history and cookies.
BROWSER INSTRUCTIONS FOR DELETING COOKIES AND HISTORY
Don’t worry, deleting these isn’t difficult. Just follow the steps for whichever internet browser(s) you use.
Google Chrome
The instructions below are for a desktop browser, not mobile phones or other devices which may be different.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click on the Chrome menu icon in the top right hand corner (it looks like three lines).
- Choose ‘More tools’.
- Click on ‘Clear browsing data’.
- A pop up window will appear. Choose a time range to clear from the drop down list. For example, ‘the past hour’.
- Tick all of the boxes.
- Click ‘Clear browsing data’.
Firefox
The instructions below are for a desktop browser, not mobile phones or other devices which may be different.
- At the top of the window click on the menu button which looks like three lines.
- Click on ‘Show your History’ icon. It looks like a clock.
- Click on ‘Clear Recent History.’
- A pop up window will appear. Choose a time range to clear from the drop down list. For example, you can just choose to clear the ‘Last Four Hours’.
- Click on ‘Clear Now’.
Safari
To delete history on a desktop or laptop:
- Go to the Safari menu at top right of the screen (looks like a wheel).
- Click on ‘Preferences…’
- A pop up will appear. Select the ‘Privacy’ tab.
- Select the ‘Remove All Website Data…’ button.
For iPhones:
- Go to Settings.
- Go to Safari.
- Scroll down until you see ‘Clear History and Website Data’ in blue text.
- Click ‘Clear History and Website Data’ to delete history.
Opera
The instructions below are for a desktop browser, not mobile phones or other devices which may be different.
- Go to the ‘Start page’
- On the left-hand side of the screen you’ll see a clock symbol callled ‘History’. Click on this.
- A window will appear with your history.
- Click on the ‘Clear browsing data…’ button at the top right.
- A pop-up window will appear.
- You can select to clear history from different times, like for example ‘the past hour’.
- Tick all boxes and press ‘Clear browsing data’.
Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11)
The instructions below are for a desktop browser and some touch devices. Mobile phones and some devices may be different.
To pick certain websites and delete them from your history:
- Move your mouse to the right hand side of the page (or tap on it if you have a touch screen to bring up a side panel). Tap or click the Favourites button (it looks like a star). This will bring up a drop-down menu.
- Choose the History tab. Now you can choose how you want to view your history. ‘View By Date’ shows your last three weeks of history. ‘View By Site’ shows a list of sites you visited in the last three weeks, but not the dates of your visits. ‘View By Most Visited’ only shows the sites you visited the most in the last three weeks. ‘View By Order Visited Today’ only shows sites you’ve visited today.
- Right-click (or press and hold) a site from any of these lists, then click (or tap) Delete. This will delete the site from your history.
To delete all your history:
- Click the Tools button in the top right of the screen (it looks like a wheel).
- Choose Safety, then click Delete browsing history.
- Tick each box: Temporary Internet files, Cookies, History, Download History, Form data, Passwords, and Filtering data.
- Click on Delete.
Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10)
The instructions below are for a desktop browser, not mobile phones or other devices which may be different.
- Move your mouse to the right hand side of the page to bring up a side panel. Click on the ‘Settings’ icon (it looks like a wheel shape) and click on ‘Internet Options’.
- Go to the ‘Safety’ menu and select ‘Delete’.
Internet Explorer 9, 8, 7 and 6
The instructions below are for desktop browsers, not mobile phones or other devices which may be different.
Internet Explorer 9
- Click on the ‘gear’ icon in the top right hand corner of the screen. It looks like a little wheel. Then click on Internet Options.
- This will make a box pop up with the names of several different sections along the top. You will already be in the section called General.
- In the General section under Browser History, select the Delete button.
- Tick each box: Temporary Internet files, Cookies, History, Download History, Form data, Passwords, InPrivate Filtering data.
- Un-tick the ‘Preserve Favourites website data’.
- Click Delete to clear everything.
Internet Explorer 7 and 8
- Go to the menu bar at the top of the page. Click on the Tools menu and select Internet Options. This will make a box pop up with the names of several different sections along the top. You will already be in the section called General.
- In the General section under Browser History, select the Delete button.
- You can select and delete each section: Temporary internet files; Cookies, History; Form data and Passwords.
- You can also just select the ‘Delete all’ button at the bottom to clear everything.
Internet Explorer 6
If you use Internet Explorer 6, go to the menu bar at the top of the page.
- Click on Tools.
- Go to the bottom of the dropdown menu and click on Internet Options. This will open a box with the names of several different sections along the top. You will already be in the section called General.
- In the middle of this box is a section called ‘Temporary Internet Files’. Click on the button marked ‘Delete files’.
- When the box pops up, tick the ‘Delete all offline content’ box and then click OK.
- When your computer finishes deleting your temporary internet files, you will be back in the General Internet Options box.
- Look at the section below called History. Here you can click on the ‘Clear History’ button.
- A pop-up box will ask you if you want to delete all items in your history folder. Click ‘Yes’.
- Click ‘OK’ to close the Internet Options box.
Microsoft Edge
To pick certain websites and delete them from your history:
- Click on the ‘hub’ icon in the top right hand corner. It looks like 3 lines.
- Click on the history icon. This looks like a clock.
- Hover over the pages you want to delete and click the ‘x’ on the right hand side.
To delete all your history and saved passwords:
- Click on the ‘more’ icon in the top right hand corner. It looks like 3 lines.
- Click settings.
- Under “Clear browsing data” click “Choose what to clear.”
- Tick each box: Temporary Internet files, Cookies, History, Cached data and files, Passwords, Form data and Download History.
- Click clear.
PRIVATE BROWSING
Private browsing is when you tell your internet browser not to save any history, cookies or temporary files for one session. A session is the time you spend on a website each time you visit.
It is good to use if you want to visit the Childline site in private but don’t have the time, or often forget to delete your history afterwards. It covers your tracks whilst you browse instead of you having to delete everything afterwards.
If you want to download any files or create bookmarks while you are browsing privately, you should still make sure you clear your history as these could be still saved.
Google Chrome
In Google Chrome private browsing is called ‘Incognito mode’. To start browsing using this feature:
- Click the spanner icon on the browser tool bar.
- Select ‘New incognito window’ from the list or you can click Ctrl+Shift+N on your keyboard.
- A new window will open with a ‘secret agent’ icon in the corner. You can continue browsing as normal in this new window.
- Once you have finished your session, close the window and this will automatically erase any browsing information.
Firefox
Here’s how to set up private browsing in Firefox:
- Before you visit the Childline website, click on ‘Tools’ in the menu bar.
- Select ‘Start Private Browsing’ from the list.
You can also do this quickly by typing Ctrl+Shift+P together on your keyboard. To stop Private Browsing, select ‘Tools’ again and then ‘Stop Private Browsing’ or typing Ctrl + Shift + P again.
Internet Explorer 8 and 9
For Internet Explorer 8 and 9 here’s how to use private browsing:
- Click on the cog icon on the browser toolbar.
- Select ‘Safety’ then click on ‘InPrivate Browsing’. You can also do this by clicking CTRL+SHIFT+P on your keyboard.
- A new window will open with an ‘InPrivate’ indicator. You can continue browsing as normal in this new window. Make sure you look at Childline in this window if you want to hide your visit.
- Once you have finished your session, close the window and this will automatically delete any browsing information.
ONLINE AND COMPUTER MONITORING SOFTWARE
Online and computer monitoring software helps keep a computer owner aware of what is happening on their computer. Sometimes parents or guardians will install monitoring software on a computer to:
- make sure you are staying safe online and using the internet in a safe way
- help protect you from cyber bullying and online grooming
- block certain websites that may be unsafe or unsuitable for you to use.
Unfortunately, some monitoring software (once installed and active on a computer) can track what someone is doing on the WCA website.
If you’re worried that what you’re doing or saying on the WCA website might be being tracked by monitoring software that’s installed on your computer, you can try these ways to use WCA:
- phone us on (402) 345-7273 if you need to talk to a counsellor
- if you need to view pages on the WCA website, try to use a different computer that doesn’t have the monitoring software installed (such as a computer in a library, internet café or school).
DELETING YOUR BROWSER HISTORY AND COOKIES
When you visit websites, your browser remembers lots of information. It can remember which sites you’ve been to, what you’ve downloaded, and much more. This is called your internet history.
You might not want other people to see you’ve been looking at the Childline website.
There are 2 things you need to do to clear your history:
- Delete all cookies
A cookie is a piece of information your computer and websites use to remember where you’ve been online. - Clear your history
Of all the websites you’ve visited.