Easy-Read Online Safety
Plain-language, easy-read summaries of the core online safety rules — for children, young people, and adults with learning disabilities.
Overview
Easy-read is a recognised UK accessibility format that uses short sentences, simple words, and supporting pictures to make information accessible to people with learning disabilities. Most online-safety material does not meet easy-read standards — which means many people are excluded from the information that protects them.
This guide explains how easy-read works, when to use it, and provides an easy-read summary of the core online safety rules. Use it directly, share it with your child, or use it as a model for your own.
Starting from strengths
Easy-read is not 'dumbed down' — it is a skilled translation that strips jargon and ambiguity. The result is clearer for everyone, not just people with learning disabilities. Many adults prefer easy-read for legal, medical, and safety information.
Common challenges and what helps
Standard 'be safe online' leaflets are unreadable for many children
Switch to easy-read versions of family agreements, app rules, and school online-safety guidance. Mencap and Photosymbols publish good templates.
Schools using inaccessible language in homework and online-safety lessons
Politely ask for easy-read versions. It is a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010.
Long terms-and-conditions impossible to navigate
You do not have to read all of them. Focus on the few that matter: who can contact my child, what is shared publicly, what happens to data.
Practical steps
- •Print and use the easy-read core rules summary.
- •Read it through with your child slowly, in short sittings.
- •Pin it near the device.
- •Ask school for easy-read versions of online-safety materials.
- •Use Mencap, Photosymbols, and Widgit as easy-read template sources.
- •Update yearly or after any incident.
Conversation starters
Phrases that help
- Shall we read our safety rules together?
- Which rule do you think is hardest to follow?
- Is there a rule you do not understand we can talk about?
- Want to make our own easy-read version?
- Can we go through this with your support worker too?
Working with school
Easy-read is a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010. Ask school for easy-read versions of online-safety teaching, family agreements, and any safeguarding paperwork your child is asked to sign. IPSEA (0800 018 4016) supports families requesting reasonable adjustments.
Signs to take seriously
- !Child agreeing to terms or policies they cannot read.
- !Adults asking your child to 'just sign' something they do not understand.
- !Inconsistency between what your child believes the rules are and what they actually say.
- !New accounts created without your knowledge, with terms your child has not understood.
When to escalate
Easy-read is an accessibility format, not a safeguarding measure on its own. If your child has been targeted, contacted, or pressured online, report to CEOP at ceop.police.uk and call 101 (999 for immediate danger). NSPCC (0808 800 5000) and Mencap (0808 808 1111) can support.
Read next
Frequently Asked Questions
Last reviewed: 2026-05-16 · This page is educational guidance, not a substitute for clinical advice, safeguarding professionals, or emergency services.
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.