On a very serious note!

The speaker on internet safety in our school this week had a frightening message for us all about the dangers of the Internet and especially apps such as Snapchat........We would ask all parents to keep informed  on what is going on out there.

• "Some kids love Snapchat because it isn’t possible for parents to monitor their messages .
•  All messages and images shared in the app disappear and cannot be viewed by a parent who picks up the phone. 
• If you have parental monitoring software on the phone it cannot monitor what is shared on Snapchat.
• Parents can see images that the teen has been tagged on in Facebook and Instagram but Snapchat images that are sent directly to someone (not shared to all contact via the “Story”) are not visible to parents"
• You need to be aged 13 to sign up for Snapchat. However, many kids sign up for it giving a bogus date of birth.( We have pupils as young as 8 and 9 using it ...or so they said yesterday !)

Another serious area for concern is the whole area on online gaming..with games such as Minecraft where players join an online community of fellow players and chat to each other online.

 Minecraft has 2 main player options:Single player where no one can join the player’s game and no one can contact them through the Minecraft chat and Multiplayer where players can join any game they want, public or private. Players can also see, speak and interact with others, whether they are friends or strangers. Many children as young as 6 or 7 are playing these games and while obviously they have parents support and assistance to play initially,as they grow in confidence and skill they quickly appear to graduate to these online chatting community. 

It is important that parents read the following parental advice  regarding Minecraft 

Minecraft: the risks and staying safe

 Top concerns when playing Minecraft are:

• bullying
•  talking to strangers
•  hacking 
• downloading viruses.

Children may also come across inappropriate content like violent or sexual language and images.

To help keep children safe on Minecraft make sure you know where they’re playing , that they’re using appropriate safety settings and that you talk to them about what to do if they see anything upsetting.