As part of our commitment to support safeguarding professionals to keep children safer, our online safety team continues to monitor the emerging apps and platforms that are seeing new interest from children and young people. Below is a list of 4 platforms that we think
What is it? Facebook have officially rolled out their gaming platform as a brand new App. Facebook Gaming is a separate App to Facebook and is designed for users to stream their gameplay, whilst also watching their favourite streamers play the most popular video games. Although it is a seperate App, it can
What is it? Instagram, which is very popular with young people, has officially launched their latest function ‘Reels’ in the UK. It’s the latest feature to be added to the platform and lets users create short 15 second videos with popular music, different filters and effects. It is largely considered to be Instagram’s
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
What is Sharenting? Many parents use social media to share important moments of their children’s lives with friends and family. Some children’s digital footprints begin before they are even born, when parents share an image of a baby scan to announce their exciting news. Creating a digital footprint for a child by
The 30th of July marks International Friendship Day – a day to celebrate our connections with the people in our lives. The day was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly and places emphasis on involving young people as future leaders and promoters of understanding and respect. It’s also a day to
What are algorithms? We all hear the word ‘algorithms’ in the news so often, and it’s normally in relation to social media. But what exactly is an ‘algorithm’? Algorithms are essentially instructions or procedures that allow computers to operate more effectively. In the online world, they are used to
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
Our digital safeguarding team continually review and test social media platforms In the past week, they focused on TikTok, testing its safety features and the effectiveness of the platform’s ability to monitor and remove explicit content The team used a login of a 14 year old to see what content they
Instagram is set to release a new feature called Reels in the UK, potentially by August 2020. We have been keeping track of the release and here is what we know so far. Reels is Instagram’s attempt to match TikTok’s dominance of short form video sharing. The feature is aimed at Instagram’s
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
“We live in a data-driven world. Almost every transaction and interaction you have with most organisations involves you sharing personal data, such as your name, address and birth date. You share data online too, every time you visit a website, search for or buy something, use social media or send an email.” (ICO,
An influencer is someone with an online social media presence and with a large enough following to market or ‘influence’ their audience to buy products, services and goods. The truth is that anyone can be an influencer, and some are famous solely for being an influencer. Popular influencers often create and sustain a
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
You may have seen recent media reports about the re-emergence of online viral challenges. We monitor these closely to make sure our network has the information they need to protect children and young people online. In the last few weeks, we have seen reports of a reappearance of the Blue Whale Challenge.
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
Have you checked your set up? The Family Sharing settings on Apple products are a great way to share music, TV, books or other purchases made on the App store with all the family. The feature allows you to set up ‘Parent’ and ‘Child’ accounts on Apple devices, which means the
“[The] daily routine [for my foster child] was a short walk [and] the rest of the day...was unlimited Fortnite in his room. He speaks of several attempts of strangers trying to contact him via the game.” (Ineqe Safeguarding Group Digital Safeguarding Survey, 2020) The world of gaming continues to evolve with 93% of
With over 30 years’ experience in education leadership, Dawn Hewitson is a Designated Safeguarding Lead and teaches Computer Science and Secondary Education at Edge Hill University. She sat down with us to discuss how to respond to sexting and image sharing. “If a child talks to you about
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges for safeguarding professionals and parents across the UK. We asked you what your concerns are in relation to keeping young people and children in your care safe online during this time. It is clear young people are spending more and more time online, exposing themselves to higher
This week, the government published the update of ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ for September 2020. Due to the onset of Coronavirus, the consultation for this update was suspended in March. They have now published the full update with some key changes. We have highlighted 3 of the main changes you should be aware
Smart speakers have grown in popularity among many households in the UK. Recent research found that over 1-in-5 UK households had a smart speaker as of the end of June 2019. That means that 5.8 million households in the UK now use a smart speaker for things such as listening to music, setting
Do you receive our Safeguarding Alerts? Receive regular updates to help you safeguard children in a digital era. Creative Activity Pack As the lockdown begins to ease, we could all benefit from less screen time, give children in your care the opportunity to get away from
As schools begin to gradually re-open, it is essential that all staff are prepared for potentially sensitive conversations that may take place. With pupils having spent a long time at home and out of school, many teachers have expressed concern about the needs of pupils once they return. It is important that staff feel prepared
Feeling a strong connection online? Be cautious! Learn how to spot the signs of catfishing and protect yourself, and those in your care, from online predators. Our online safety shareable provides essential information on identifying red flags, verifying online profiles, and taking action if you suspect a catfish.
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