After gaining fame through popular social media app TikTok, this iOS widget has been shooting up the App Store charts – but what is Locket and how does the Locket widget work? What is Locket? You may not have heard of
Every new year sees new trends, risks, and threats to online safety emerge, especially for children and young people. This can seem overwhelming (and sometimes even frightening) if you feel like you’ve just got your head around the last new ‘thing’. To help you stay ahead of
We’ve received recent reports of children as young as six discussing an online horror character called ‘Slender Man’. Our online safety experts have taken a deeper look at Slender Man to address any risks or red flags, as well as our top tips for parents, carers, and
After two years of lockdowns and isolation, young people are feeling more isolated than ever before. As many continue to use the online world to seek support, we’re now seeing the mainstreaming of AI friends and support bots. Keep reading to find out all about the newest chatbot on our radar, Replika.
Header Image ©& TM 2022 Roblox Corporation. All Rights Reserved We have recently received multiple reports from parents and school staff about harmful content on gaming platform Roblox. To help you understand how to keep children and young people safe, we’ve created this important Roblox Parents Guide. The latest reports we’ve received have outlined worrying accounts of younger children
If you had just begun to wrap your head around cryptocurrencies and Deepfakes, we have news for you – there’s another online trend on the rise! The digital craze of NFTs has exploded in popularity over the last few months and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Our beginner’s guide
Do you know how much time you spend on social media? What about the children in your care? Instagram users may have noticed a recent addition to the app with the launch of the platform’s Take a Break feature. This opt-in feature will prompt users to ‘step away’ from the
Guidance for Parents and Carers WARNING: This contains images and details some people may find disturbing. This should not be shared with young children. Our online safety experts have been alerted to a video game, being described by some users as an “introduction to
As a parent or carer, you might be deciding to give your child their first phone, tablet, or laptop (or third, fourth, fifth – even a new update). This is a big decision! The responsibility and freedom that comes with owning a device is a big step for children – and you! It might even
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is typically understood as an offline issue. In our line of work, however, we are seeing increasing reports of online sexualised abuse and harassment towards women and girls. To remedy this issue, we need to understand that online risks have offline roots. November 25th marks the International Day for
Once upon a time, chatting with friends outside of school meant using a landline. Playing games with pals involved knocking on their doors. Being bullied by other pupils was confined to school hours. Now, the virtual world has created a 24/7 timeframe for children and young people to become the targets
We can all conjure up a mental image of a “bully” – someone mean, troubled, and angry who takes out these feelings on others. You might imagine a person from your life or a character from a film or television show. But what happens when the “bully” in question is the child in your care? This is a
INEQE Safeguarding Group have been alerted to a number of incidents concerning the online targeting of teachers and school professionals by students. Pupils have been creating online posts that ridicule, harass, or otherwise bully staff on social media sites, such as TikTok and Instagram. The nature of these posts includes photographs of
Every day, we see the release of new apps and new features that promise to help keep you more connected to others. One of the most popular online spaces for children and young people to connect is Discord. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about this platform and why it presents
Instagram has recently changed its link sharing in Stories feature to allow all users access to add links. Previously, this ability to add links into Stories was limited to those with verified accounts or users with a certain number of followers. It was first introduced in August 2021 as the main link-sharing method, replacing the
What’s New? Instagram have recently launched two new features ‘Desktop Uploads’ and ‘Collaborations’. Both features are now available on the latest version of the app and desktop site. The platform has also announced that they are currently testing two further video features. Our online safety experts have taken a look to see what these changes
Police in Northern Ireland have issued a warning following a surge of recent reports about a WhatsApp scam targeting victims across the region. This scam involves a scammer pretending to be a child or relative asking their loved ones for money via a WhatsApp message. Superintendent Gerard Pollock, Chair of
Due to the popularity of Netflix’s most recent viral show, Squid Game, our online safety experts have received several questions about it from concerned parents, carers, and teachers. We decided to release a Safeguarding Update that highlights the main risks and concerns our experts found when researching the show. What is Squid Game? Squid
What is it? The Scottish Government recently released the new National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, the first update since the previous guidance in 2014. The non-statutory guidance describes the responsibilities and expectations for how safeguarding professionals and agencies should work together with parents, families, and communities to prevent and
Online Safety Alert Our online safety experts have been alerted to the concept of ‘Gacha Heat’ videos using the characters and backgrounds from the popular roleplaying game Gacha Life. These videos contain characters and backgrounds made on Gacha Studio which is part of their suite of apps. The ‘Gacha
What is it? The Age Appropriate Design Code (sometimes referred to as The Children’s Code) is a new code of practice that sets out standards of age-appropriate design for “information society services” that are likely to be accessed by children. In other words, it’s new requirements for any companies that offer services online that are
This contains sensitive information and should not be shared with anyone below the age of 18 years old. Safeguarding Alert Our online safety experts have been alerted to a potentially viral TikTok trend. The trend focuses on people recording “reaction videos” while searching for a term that brings them to a specific type of illegal, sexual online content. From what our experts have discovered, the explicit material
It’s that time of year again! When summer t-shirts are swapped for school ties, beach shorts replaced by crisp white shirts, and sandals in shoe-racks switch places with shiny new school shoes. Alongside these replacements, there are other transitions happening that may not be so obvious. As school timetables are given out, our home
Recently, many of the popular online platforms that we use every day released plans to improve the experience for users under 18. But will these changes actually improve the online safety for children and young people? Our analysts have reviewed the latest changes announced by Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Google to provide you with
Receiving exam results is always a stressful time. It’s the culmination of countless hours of hard work and stress on top of navigating education throughout a pandemic. For many, it will be a time of joy and looking forward to the future. However, this won’t be the reality for some pupils around the UK as they receive results that aren't what they hoped for. Dealing with