Select Page

What parents and carers need to know about Snapchat

Help sheet on Snapchat

When Snapchat’s number of active users plateaued at around the 180 million mark for the majority of 2018, many observers surmised that the platform had become ‘old hat’ in the eyes of its younger fan-base. A continuous (and lockdown-abetted) recovery since then, however, has proved that reports of the app’s demise had been greatly exaggerated.

Snapchat’s willingness to move with the times, strategically adding new features such as Spotlight and Snap Map, has kept it relevant and appealing. Each fresh tweak, however, provides potential scope for new harms – whether deliberately or accidentally inflicted. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide focuses its discerning lens onto Snapchat.

Please click the link above, to access the help sheet on Snapchat.

What parents and carers need to know about Netflix

Help sheet on Netflix

The planet’s most popular subscription streaming service, Netflix currently offers more than 500 shows and almost 2,500 films for users to choose from. Many of these, of course, are squarely aimed at an adult audience but are nevertheless accessible to children through a parent or carer’s profile unless preventative controls have been set up.

This was the problem behind the recent furore around Squid Game, a violent South Korean drama featuring deadly playground games which caused many unsuspecting adults to mistake it for a children’s programme. Our #WakeUpWednesday this week brings parents and carers a timely reminder of the potential risks related to Netflix – and suggestions for avoiding them.

Please click the above link, to access the help sheet on Netflix.

10 Ways You Can Share Kindness Online

10 ways to share kindness online

Last year, the percentage of US teens who experienced bullying online stood at an all-time high of 36%. The UK figure – 19% – also represents an unhealthily large proportion. These numbers are by no means unrepresentative of the global picture, either – and recent increases in young people’s screen-time and anxiety levels during lockdown periods only inflamed the situation.

To lend our support to Anti-Bullying Week 2021, we’ve produced a special #WakeUpWednesday guide of suggestions for how we can all be part of the antidote to bullying by sharing kindness online instead of cruelty. The theme of this year’s event is ‘One Kind Word’ – and indeed, such small, sincere gestures online can go a long way to helping someone experiencing a tough time.

Please click the link at the top of this post, to access the help sheet.

What parents and carers need to know about cryptocurrency

Help sheet cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency’s availability – and influence – has grown exponentially since Bitcoin debuted in 2009. Little over a decade later, there are more than 5,000 different types of cryptocurrency on the market. Some, of course, are more successful than others – but the concept has now established a sufficiently robust beachhead to thrive in the coming years.

This means, naturally, that cryptocurrency will be embedded even more deeply in our culture by the time today’s schoolchildren are grown. It’s incumbent on the trusted adults of today, then, to begin equipping young people for this new method of carrying out transactions online. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide brings parents and carers the essentials on cryptocurrency.

Please click the link above, to access the help sheet on Cryptocurrency

What parents and carers need to know about age-inappropriate content

Help sheet age appropriate content

According to research carried out by the British Board of Film Classification, last year 60% of children had to talk to their parents after viewing something online that had left them feeling uncomfortable, scared or confused. One in seven (13%) teens said that watching content online that they later wish they hadn’t seen is a daily occurrence.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of the content reported by children featured either violence, hate speech or explicit sexual material. Social media often acts as a gateway to this material: trending topics tend to be seen whether they were searched for or not. Our #WakeUpWednesday guide examines this and other sources of inappropriate online content.

Please click the link above, to access the help sheet.

What parents and carers need to know about setting up new devices for children

Setting up new devices for children

Some adults shy away from adjusting the parental controls on their child’s digital devices, assuming that they’ll be hard to understand and tricky to set up. In most cases, however, it’s refreshingly straightforward: just a few clicks of a mouse or touches of a screen can provide an extra layer of protection for children using those devices to explore the online world.

From restricting inappropriate content and blocking in-app purchases to setting automatic screen-time limits and restricting who can contact your child online, our #WakeUpWednesday guide this week has some useful Yuletide tips. We’ll show you how to set up devices so that when your child uses them to go online, you can be more confident about their safety

Please access the help sheet, at the top of this post by clicking on the link.

What parents and carers need to know about Fortnite Chapter 3

Help sheet on Fortnite chapter 3

Fortnite is one of those rare titles which breaks through from the gaming world to create a wider cultural impact. This success was swiftly monetised, of course, leading to Fortnite action figures, plush toys, branded clothing, stationery, bedspreads and the like. The nature of these products hints at a sizeable proportion of the game’s fans being below the recommended age limit of 12.

So how much of a danger does Fortnite pose to its younger players? For starters, the game is fundamentally about using an array of weaponry to eliminate a stream of enemies. As our #WakeUpWednesday guide outlines, however, on-screen violence is far from the highest concern – with potential issues over in-app purchasing, scams and toxic behaviour from other players.

Please click the above link, to learn more about Fortnite.

What parents and carers need to know about Replika

Help sheet on Replika

Unlike some AIs, Replika can’t answer trivia questions. It can’t order a takeaway. It can’t control your domestic appliances. What it can do is chat – about anything from your favourite book to how your day was. The software learns to imitate its user, aiming to produce more rewarding interaction. The more a person talks to their Replika, the more it sounds – and thinks – like them.

Straight away, there’s an obvious potential issue. An advanced chatbot, constantly reflecting someone’s own thoughts back at them, could create a personal echo chamber where even extreme or distasteful opinions become normalised. As our #WakeUpWednesday guide this week discovers, that’s not the only possible threat posed by the AI companion app Replika.

Please click the link above to access the help sheet on Replika.

What parents and carers need to know about horror games

Help sheet on Horror games

With shriek-inducing jump scares, unbearable suspense and nauseating levels of gore, the sources of distress that children might find in a horror game are self-evident. Most commercially released titles have an age certificate high enough to alert parents to the possible dangers, but download-only titles don’t require a rating and therefore often push the boundaries even further.

Our #WakeUpWednesday guide this week tiptoes intrepidly into the blood-soaked but perennially popular realm of the horror genre, discovering that an unsettling atmosphere and disturbing imagery can stay in young minds long after the game has been switched off – and that real-life human players are more dangerous than legions of virtual zombies or vampires.

Please click the link above to see the help sheet on Horror games.

What parents need to know about Rocket League

Help sheet on Rocket League

Something of an unexpected success after its 2015 debut, Rocket League settled into a steady if unspectacular groove of moderate audiences in the following years. Like many online video games, however, it enjoyed a significant spike in popularity over recent months as children and young people sought entertainment during lockdown.

Over-consumption, in fact, is one of the main issues with the game – which relies on frequent (and occasionally long) sessions of play if users want to progress up the rankings. Today’s #WakeUpWednesday guide to the game also pinpoints potential risks including in-game purchases and the possibility of scams which target naïve younger players.

Please click the above link to learn more about Rocket League.

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/online-gaming-advice/

 www.darlington.gov.uk/DISP

Support for parents and carers to keep children safe online

Options for reporting or talking through online problems:

CEOP

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. It is part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces. Anybody with concerns that a pupil is being groomed or sexually exploited, including involvement in Sexting, should contact them directly using the link below. I would strongly recommend that if possible, you also contact Mr Lindsay or any member of the Safeguarding team here at Hurworth as we may need to make additional referrals to Children’s Services.

www.ceop.police.uk

www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre

Childline Instant Help

The link provided below will take you to the Childline website where you can click the explore button to find out more about topics such as Cyber Bullying and Online and Mobile Safety. More importantly if you click on the 1 to 1 Chat Online link you can contact a Childline counsellor in a 1 to 1 online chat (like instant messenger) about any online problems. Childline state that no problem is too big or too small.

www.childline.org.uk

ThinkUKnow

Here you can find the latest information on websites, mobiles and new technology. Find out what’s good, what’s not and what you can do about it. If you look after young people, there’s an area for you too with resources you can use at home or just to get yourself up to speed with the latest developments. Most importantly, there’s also a place which anyone can use to report if they feel uncomfortable or worried about someone they are chatting to online.

www.thinkuknow.co.uk/

Here you can find a parents/carers guide to safely stream online and share images.

Delivering Online Safety at Home

Internet Watch Foundation

If you have inadvertently stumbled across potentially illegal online content, specifically images of child sexual abuse, criminally obscene material or anything that incites racial hatred then please submit a report to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). The IWF works in partnership with the police, government, the online industry and the public to combat this type of material and you are helping to make the internet safer for all by taking this action.

www.iwf.org.uk

Options for finding information about online safety guidance:

All the websites listed above have both reporting tools and sections of information and advice relating to e-safety. In addition to these you may find the following useful:

Twitter

The Twitter feed from the CEOP website has many tweets with up to date information about online safety. It covers the type of current activity taking place not only across the UK but also specifically what is happening regionally.

twitter.com/ceopuk

Get Safe Online

Get Safe Online is the UK’s leading source of unbiased, factual and easy-to-understand information on online safety.

www.getsafeonline.org