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
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Have you ever seen the term “troll” or “trolling” used on social media? If you look at the comment section of any controversial topic, you’ll likely find it. Trolling is typically used to irritate communities, fans of celebrity targets, or people who hold specific beliefs or positions of power. The seemingly anonymous nature of internet
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
Join our Safeguarding Hub Newsletter Network Members of our network receive weekly updates on the trends, risks and threats to children and young people online. Pause, Think and Plan Guidance on how to talk to the children in your care about online risks. Watch video
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
A viral post is circulating on social media about a child accidentally stumbling across a video called ‘Evil Santa’ on YouTube Kids. The video allegedly features Santa telling the child to harm themselves and others to get more presents. The post has been shared widely on social media, worrying parents, carers,
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Incel stands for involuntary celibate. The incel ideology can be complex, with many different subcultures associated with the term. Some incels hold or express extreme, misogynistic views and blame others, particularly women, for their lack of sexual experience or success in relationships. Online communities of self-identified incels have become known for promoting harmful ideologies, based
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
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The phrase ‘dark web’ might bring up all sorts of connotations in your mind, none of which are probably good. For most people, the dark web is a place never ventured to or even given much thought. It’s the other side of the internet, the shadowy depths where criminals and people who are up
Join our Safeguarding Hub Newsletter Network Members of our network receive weekly updates on the trends, risks and threats to children and young people online. Pause, Think and Plan Guidance on how to talk to the children in your care about online risks. Watch video
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
Join our Safeguarding Hub Newsletter Network Members of our network receive weekly updates on the trends, risks and threats to children and young people online. Pause, Think and Plan Guidance on how to talk to the children in your care about online risks. Watch video
Apple has released the latest update to their mobile system following a recent security breach much covered in the media. With iOS 15, there are multiple new features that change some of Apple’s core products in a big way. Our online safety experts have looked at all the new features in this update to
Join our Safeguarding Hub Newsletter Network Members of our network receive weekly updates on the trends, risks and threats to children and young people online. Pause, Think and Plan Guidance on how to talk to the children in your care about online risks. Watch video
Header Image ©& TM 2021 Marvel ©2021 CPIL. All Rights Reserved You may have recently seen popular gaming platform Fortnite in the news due to its ongoing legal battle with Apple. Because this game has always been popular with younger children and teenagers, we are often asked, “Is it safe
Join our Safeguarding Hub Newsletter Network Members of our network receive weekly updates on the trends, risks and threats to children and young people online. Pause, Think and Plan Guidance on how to talk to the children in your care about online risks. Watch video
Join our Safeguarding Hub Newsletter Network Members of our network receive weekly updates on the trends, risks and threats to children and young people online. Pause, Think and Plan Guidance on how to talk to the children in your care about online risks. Watch video
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