Online Safety
The Reverse Selfie by Dove
By age 13, 80% of girls (and many boys also) distort the way they look online. Let’s change that. Social media is a big part of young people’s lives – but retouching apps and pressure to post the ‘perfect selfie’ are hurting their self esteem and confidence. Have the selfie talk with a child you love to reverse the damage and celebrate the natural person.
The Dove Self-Esteem Project have created this powerful video highlighting retouching apps and the pressure to post the perfect selfie. It’s worth a watch, especially by our 5/6 students! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2 T-Rh838GA
A Digital Footprint is any information that is available online about you (even information shared by others), for example, photos, posts, and comments that you have made. We need to support children in developing a positive footprint by encouraging them to think about what they share and that they have appropriate privacy settings in place.
See https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/whats-in-your-digital-footprint for a child friendly video clip to provide further information about what this means.
Snapchat
Snapchat remains a popular app for messaging and sharing photos and videos. You must be 13+ to sign up. The app has some privacy settings which we would recommend you explore with your child and suggest why certain options are safer, for example, setting your account so only friends (rather than everyone) can see your content.
What should I be aware of?
- Who is your child friends with – talk to your child about who they are friends with and why it is safer to be friends with only those they know in real life.
- Group chats - in a group chat, there may be people that they’re not friends with on the app who can then communicate with them in the group chat, which increases their risk of interacting with strangers.
- Snap Map - The map lets users see where friends are. Location sharing via the map is optional and is off by default (we recommend that it remains off).
- Snapchat streaks - Streaks count how many consecutive days two people have been sending Snaps to each other, this can increase pressure to respond daily.
- Inappropriate content – due to the nature of the app your child may come across content that is inappropriate.
- Screenshots – whilst Snaps disappear, users may take screenshots before they do, potentially resulting in them losing control of what they have shared as it could be sent to other people.
- Bullying – there is a risk of bullying on all platforms so please ensure your child knows how to block and report other users if necessary.
- https://snap.com/safety/safety-reporting/
- https://support.snapchat.com/en-GB/a/remove-block-friends
Safety tips
It is important to talk to your child regularly about what they are doing online and make sure that they know that they should always talk to you or another trusted adult if they have any concerns. Please make sure the appropriate privacy settings are set up and your child knows how to block and report other users if necessary.