Friday 10thMarch,2017
Dear Parents,
There have been a number of incidents this week involving children’s online behaviour at home, which we must bring to your attention.
Firstly, a number of children have been communicating via Instagram and some of the conversations led to, or carried on, arguments in school. Fortunately, on this occasion, nothing too serious has happened, but the comments could have been interpreted as bullying in nature.
In another incident, children’s YouTube accounts led to a child being upset. After just a few minutes looking online, it is clear many children have open YouTube accounts and some videos show children in their school uniform.
We understand parents have a very difficult job in today’s fast moving technological world to keep up-to-date with what children are doing online. Did you know there are age restrictions on social media sites? None of them should be used by primary age children, however, we know many children do because they tell us! Do you realise though, that if you sign your child up to, for example Facebook, aged 8, then when that child is 13, Facebook will assume he/ she is 18? That means if an adult tried to groom your child online, he/ she would be able to say that they thought they were legitimately talking to an 18-year-old.
Please use the guidelines below to help make an informed decision about what your child is allowed to access. If your child has any account, please remove any pictures/ videos which show him or her in their school uniform. Please continue to be “nosey”. Insist on knowing their password and check what they are up do daily. Set privacy settings at the highest level so that comments or postings are in public view. We know this won’t make you popular and won’t be easy to enforce, but better this, than to have your child upset by cyber bullying or even worse!