E-Safety Newsletter for Parents/Carers
March 2015
Welcome to our March 2015 E-safety
Newsletter. I hope you have had a chance to
look at our new dedicated e-Safety Page
under the Parent/Carer tab on our website –
www.tces.org.uk
New on our website in March 2015
Television Programmes to look out for:
CBBC's first online drama, Dixi, which explores the world of social media. It
launches on 11 February with music video 'In Real Life' on bbc.co.uk/cbbc - a
teaser for the interactive drama which kicks off on 24 February.
Facebook News stories
 Facebook tackles suicide prevention
 Facebook restricts violent videos
Latest Information on Digital Apps
Iframe Link with very latest up to date information on Digital Apps, Social Media,
Online Identity, Filters, Coding, Gaming, Illegal Content, Boundaries and many
more articles, tips, advice and resources designed to help you keep up with what
your child is doing online.
Parent/Carer e-safety workshops at your child’s school
After Easter half term we are looking at setting up dates for parent/carers esafety workshops. These could be during parent evenings, coffee mornings or
another event that is happening at your child’s school. The dates will be posted
on the website as soon as they are available and also sent out to you in a letter.
Has someone posted something upsetting about you/your child?
Most websites have a way for you to ask them to remove ‘content’ – like videos,
pictures, comments or profiles – that upsets you. This is called making a ‘report’.
It’s important to know that making a report doesn’t mean the content will
definitely be removed.
Just like in school, most websites have a set of rules which they expect people
using their site to obey - these are called 'terms of use'.
If you want to have something taken down from a site you should check to see
if it breaks one of their rules.
Facebook calls their rules ‘Community Standards’, YouTube’s rules are called
‘Community Guidelines’ and other sites like Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram have
their own sets of rules and ways to report.
Before using any website you should read them to learn what is, and what isn’t,
acceptable on the site. You should also learn how to report content to the site.
Remember, that to use any of these sites your child need to be at least 13 years
old. If they are under 13 and someone has posted something about them, they
may need your help to report it. Of course you can always contact your school
for help.
You can find the rules, how to report and help centres for the most popular
social networks at: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_13/help/Contact-socialsites/ for apps like: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Twitter,
Ask.fm, Kik, Messenger.
If you do not have access to a computer or the internet and would like a print
out for any of these please call 0208 543 7878 and ask to speak to Lesley and I
will send these out to you by post.
Social media and the more popular networks.
When we talk about the Internet, or online risk, that's quite a generic
statement; after all, the Internet is simply a series of connecting roads
which allow communication to take place. The last few years has seen
a huge increase in children and young people using more and more
mobile technologies, such as phones and tablets. For many of these users it's not about 'the
web', it's about the apps, specifically social media apps.
Over the next few pages you will find a brief description of some of the more popular sites
and apps, used amongst children and young people, along with some of the specific things it's
worth knowing about each one.
Facebook
Probably the most famous social network of them all, and certainly
the one with the most users.
Whereas many social networks are used for one or two forms of media (such as text and
photos), Facebook is trying to become the sharing platform for anything and everything. Users
will 'Friend' each other by sending 'Friend Requests' and, if accepted, a connection is made so
that each can see others' posts and potentially the posts of 'Friends of Friends', depending on
the privacy settings.
Instagram: In the words of Children and Young People (CYP), "...a
fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through pictures.
Presently, Instagram is the most popular or very close to the most
popular social networking app amongst children and young people. As with the large majority
of social networks the security and privacy settings are easy to apply, however, sadly this isn't
the case. Instagram shares are public by default, which means that anyone can see the posts.
Equally, there is a significant amount of adult content on Instagram.
Twitter: Twitter is known as a micro-blog; it allows the user to send
140 characters of text and attach a link, photograph or video.
One of the most popular uses amongst children and young people is
to connect with others such as celebrities, music/pop stars etc., in order to gain a behind-thescenes snapshot of their lives. Users can 'DM' (direct message) each other, but this isn't the
norm - the majority of tweets are public, as are the accounts themselves. All updates are
instantaneous and should you decide that you want to delete your tweet for some reason, it
is usually too late - the tweet will already have been seen or retweeted by others.
YouTube: Massively popular with children and young people and
owned by Google, YouTube is a way of sharing videos and allowing
people to comment on those videos. YouTube statistics are mindblowing.
YouTube is hugely popular, because of the amount of information available, the diversity of
the information, and the visual nature of it. One of the most popular uses amongst children
in particular, is to find new ways to play certain online games, cheats, or valuable tips on
games such as the massively popular Minecraft.
Due to the huge amount of videos available, there is a significant amount of inappropriate
material on YouTube, and also a certain amount of illegal material too, such as copyright (e.g.
music) videos. Google do a pretty good job of taking this type of material down but with such
a huge amount of data, it must be difficult.
Snapchat: This is another application for sharing photographs and
short videos. This app is fairly unique because shared media has a
time-limit applied to it, anywhere between 1 and 10 seconds. This
means that once a photo or video is uploaded it will self-delete after
the specified timeframe. Snapchat also allows alterations to be
made to the media before it is sent, which is another reason why it has become so popular.
Although most social networks work in relatively the same way (followers, updates, sharing)
and the vast majority of people use them for creative reasons, Snapchat is one of these apps
that causes considerable concern due to its unique function of self-deleting. That very
function has allowed some to be a little more risqué when uploading pictures; commonly
called sexting, which can be seen by younger users, including primary aged children.
WhatsApp: Owned by Facebook, WhatsApp is very popular as it allows
people to text people at no cost, as it uses an internet connection. As
well as text messages, users can also share media such as photos,
videos and audio.
WhatsApp works by allowing the app access to the user's contacts, and then comparing on
the WhatsApp servers if any of those contacts have WhatsApp, where a connection will be
made. It is also possible for non-WhatsApp users to be sent a message to encourage them to
use the app. Although there are no specific concerns about WhatsApp, automatic access to
contacts for a whole host of reasons, user/personal data being stolen, third-party advertising
and more, is never a good thing.
Tumblr: The best way of describing Tumblr is that it is like a microblogging scrapbook; essentially users set up their own profile and share
things that interest them and also content they like from other
Tumblr's that they follow
Tumblr, as with many other social networks, is more graphical rather than text based. As
such, there are a minority of users who may use tumblr to talk about or even promote
disorders such as eating disorders (known as thinspo or thinspiration), self-harming or prosuicide and this is sometimes shared using disturbingly graphic photos.
In common with other social media, the default setting for Tumblr profiles is 'Public' meaning
that anybody can view/follow the profile and so users need to be very careful what they are
sharing and with whom.
Ask.FM: Hosted in Latvia, Ask.FM is another sites that very quickly
became popular with children and young people. Essentially it is a site
where a user signs up, and then posts a question to be answered by
anyone else, or answers questions that others have posted.
One of the unique points about Ask.FM is that it allows users to ask or answer those
questions anonymously, simply by putting a tick in a box. However, it is this very feature
allows people to be faceless thereby reducing empathy. On the other hand, whilst the
technical details of the user are not shared on the specific post (such as username, IP
address), it is all still logged and can therefore be used as evidence if Ask.FM release the
details!
Summary
It is impossible to keep up with all social networks/apps that are out there, but it is useful to
understand what is popular with children.
Social media apps by themselves are not a risk, but certain apps lend themselves to more
risque behaviours. For example Snapchat with its apparent temporary nature of photos and
Ask.FM with its ability to ask and answer questions anonymously.
That’s all for this month, but I will be back with more information and tips for
you in April.
Lesley
E-Safety Officer