When you are on the internet your browser keeps a record of the sites and pages you have visited. This is called your browsing history. Certain sites – including this one – may also store cookies on your computer when you visit them. This means that someone could look at your browsing and cookie history and see the sites you have been on.
If you want to hide the fact you have been on this site, the information below can help tell you how to do this.
Using different devices
If you’re worried about someone knowing you’ve visited this site, the best thing to do is to visit it on a device that person has no access to. For example, you might be able to access this site without them knowing on a library or school computer. If the only device you can visit this site on is being monitored, however, the tips below may help.
Browsing in private
You can browse in private on the internet. This means that your browser won’t store any information in your internet history, so anyone who looks at it won’t know you’ve visited this site. For this to work, its important to turn on private browsing before you access the site the want to hide. Also, it's important to turn off private browsing after you have finished, as leaving it open could raise suspicion.
You can use private browsing to hide any site that you don't want people to know you have been on, not just this one.
Find out how to browse in private on the ChildLine website.
Keeping your visits secret
When you don't browse in private, your internet browser keeps information about what you did on the sites you’ve been to after you’ve visited them. This information is known as your internet history. If you don’t want someone to know you’ve visited this site, you may want to clear this from your computer.
Find out how to delete your internet history on the ChildLine website.
After deleting your internet history, it’s a good idea to visit some sites that people who might check your internet history won’t mind you looking at. This should make it less obvious that your history has been deleted.
Quickly leaving the site
If you need to quickly leave our site for any reason – such as stopping someone from seeing you’re on it – you can click the Quick Hide button on the top right of the site. This links to Google, which should rapidly load to replace our site on your screen.
What Quick Hide doesn’t do
The Quick Hide button doesn’t disguise the fact you visited our site. If you or someone else clicks the back button after pressing it, you’ll still go back to the page you were looking at before you did.