Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024  includes a reminder to schools to regularly review their filtering systems for effectiveness. Many of these were established some time ago. Both the concerning issues children may searching for and the language they use in these searches are constantly changing. At St. Peter's we strive to ensure that our filters keep pace with this and are reviewed regularly. Pupil and staff searches are monitored by OrchestrateIT and the Head teacher receives a daily report which includes details about potential risks.

See below for recent alerts that have been sent out:

• Safeguarding Alert: Smart School Boy 9
  Please follow the link for an important safeguarding alert!

• Ofcom Data Reveals 1 in 3 Children Aged 5 -7 Use Social Media Unsupervised
  Compared to a year ago, a higher proportion of young people aged 5-7 now engage in messaging, voice chat, and video calls, as well as live-streamed content. Social media platforms have also seen an increase in engagement with the data demonstrating a significant uptick in social media usage among 5-7 year-olds, with platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Discord showing notable growth.

• Navigating risks around a recent film
  In response to concerns within our Safer Schools community, we’re issuing this Safeguarding Update regarding the highly explicit nature of this recent film. This is a trending movie on Amazon Prime Video with a 15+ rating which has garnered attention for its controversial content, spawning countless memes, challenges and reaction videos on social media.

• Parent's Guide to Gifting Tech at Christmas

• Online Group Chats - a guide
  Group chats have rapidly grown in popularity to become an integral of so many young people’s online world. However, as useful as they may be, risks are also involved

• Useful websites to help you to keep your child safe:

  swgfl.org.uk

  www.saferinternet.org.uk/

  http://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers  

New TikTok parental controls allows blocking of video topics

TikTok has introduced a new feature that allows parents to control the content their children can view on the app.
Part of the platform’s family pairing functionality, the feature enables adults to connect their account to their teenager’s and manage settings such as screen time limits.
Last year, the app added a tool that automatically filters out videos with words or hashtags users may not want to see in their For You or Following feeds.
Now the new update means that parents and guardians can set these content filters for their children.
“We’re bringing this tool to Family Pairing to empower caregivers to help reduce the likelihood of their teen viewing content they may uniquely find jarring,” TikTok wrote…

• JEFFY cartoon character HIGH RISK ALERT
  21st November Please follow the link to read about the risks associated with this YouTube character

• Huggy Wuggy and Poppy's Playtime PC HORROR game
  A horror game character from ‘Poppy Playtime’ named Huggy Wuggy has been raising concerns amongst parents, police and safeguarding professionals.

• Avekin Life Safeguarding Alert
  Get information about the safety, or otherwise, of Yubo and Poppy Playtime I think the clue to the risks are in the name!

• Introduction to ChatGPT and AI Chatbots
  Please click on the link to find out more - our children are living in a fast-paced world!

• H*$tai Digital Safeguarding Threat Assessment (name adapted for safeguarding purposes)
  This site poses a significant safeguarding to children. This contains sensitive information and graphic imagery that should not be shared with anyone below the age of 18 years old.

• The Dangers of Mr Tate
  Children as young as 11 have been discussing AT. The ideas that he is sharing are very worrying. Please read for more information.

• TWITCH
  Chances are you may have heard of popular livestreaming platform, Twitch. Our latest online safety article and shareable graphic discuss this platform in greater detail, including what is meant by the term ‘livestreaming’, the risks of Twitch and our advice for helping you keep those in your care safe when gaming online.

• Depression Rooms on ROBLOX
  Safeguarding Alert from Safer Schools

• Explicit Image Alert Trent on TikTok
  Safeguarding Alert from Safer Schools

• How Safe is the JusTalk app?

• What is Yubo?
  What is this app for and what are the risks?

• Risky self harm 'game' on ROBLOX
  We have received reports of a viral post circulating on social media about an alleged self-harm ‘game’ being shared on popular gaming platform Roblox. Known as ‘The Game’, the post claims that the game appears through private chats in an attached Word document that contains the rules and instructions.

• Hi Mum
  We have recently been made aware of a phishing scam known as 'Hi Mum' that has been circulating through text message or an instant messaging service, such as WhatsApp. The scam involves the impersonation of friends or family members in order to gain access to your personal information. We strongly encourage you to read our article for guidance on identifying phishing scams and how to deal with them if you have been targeted.

• Dangerous online chat room OMEGLE

Advice to help keep you and your family secure online

• A Parent's Guide to Gifting Tech

• Tik-Tok now
  What are the risks?

• ROBLOX: A parent's guide to protect children from harmful content