ONLINE SAFETY NEWLETTERS
We have joined together with the National Online Safety (NOS) Campaign so together we can make it our mission to make the internet a safer place for children. We believe that through engaging Online Safety resources and through equipping parents and children with the knowledge they need to understand online dangers, we can together make a difference.
The NOS provides guides for parents as part of their #WakeUpWednesday campaign and it is viewed as one of the most trusted and reputable learning resources in the UK, providing expert advice on the latest platforms and online risks that parents and carers need to know about.
We shall be sharing these weekly guides with parents every Wednesday via our Parent Hub App and they are also available below.
Parents and Carers Guide to Inappropriate Online Content
Inappropriate Content Online Advice for Parents and Carers
A Message from Lincolnshire Safeguarding Team
Over the last few months, we have seen an increase in the number of schools reporting that students, while at home, have accessed content which is not always appropriate, some of which has been quite scary or upsetting. We have also had a report of worrying trends on TikTok encouraging nudity from its users. This can have legal implications for our children and young people that they often aren’t aware of.
While there is no perfect way to eliminate this risk, we feel that there are things parents and carers can do to support their children online, reduce the risk or manage it after the fact. Remember to keep lines of Communication open with your children and young people. Just like we ask them how their day was at school and what they got up to it is equally important to have this conversation about their Online lives. If you can keep technology out of the bedrooms and private spaces this is also an effective tool in safeguarding our children.
Here are some more practical steps parents and carers can follow:
Have you heard about Tik Tok Family Pairing https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-introduces-family-pairing Family pairing allows adults to link their accounts to their teenagers account so you can customise their safety settings such as content, privacy and well being settings.
It's important to remember that no filters or controls are 100% effective so make sure your child knows that they can, and should, talk to someone if they see or hear anything upsetting online so we can offer them some reassurance. This information from Thinkuknow might be useful https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/Im-worried-my-primary-aged-child-might-see-something-inappropriate-online/
Kathryn Smith
Community Safety Strategy Coordinator lead for Preventative Education
E SAFETY ALERTS
OMEGLE - ONLINE SAFETY WARNING
We have been contacted by the Preventative Education Community Safety Service at Lincolnshire County Council over concerns being raised around the website Omegle. Omegle offers a free video chat service which will connect you to a random stranger who can interact with you through text, chat and webcam. There is no safe way to use this website and it is highly likely that users will encounter adult sexual content and risk encountering predatory behaviour. The attached factsheet has been created to educate parents on what Omegle is and how to protect children and young people from its use through encouraging the use of internet parental controls in the home.
Online Safety Update – November 2022
HUGGY WUGGY ONLINE SAFETY WARNING
Some children in school have been discussing online characters called Huggy Wuggy and Mommy long legs which are from a game and TV show called Poppy Playtime.
The animated character goes by the friendly name of Huggy Wuggy, leading parents and children to believe the videos are aimed at youngsters and contain no inappropriate material. However, the blue bear-like creature chases and threatens other characters in nightmarish scenarios, leaving many young children upset and frightened.
The character is from a survival horror game called Poppy Playtime, but has been made into popular videos which appear on YouTube and have seemingly slipped through parental controls. Poppy Playtime first appeared on Steam and is made by indie developer MOB Games. In it, the player plays as a former employee who is revisiting an abandoned toy factory previously owned by the game’s in-universe company Playtime Co.
It is available on the App Store and Android store and has a PEGI 12 rating, meaning it is only suitable for people over 12. Toys representing the character are sold on Amazon. The Huggy Wuggy character has also been recreated on Roblox, a virtual community where users can create their own 3D worlds with their own game players.
What is Poppy Playtime?
The game involves staying alive in a horror puzzle adventure. Within the game, vengeful toys wait for players in the abandoned toy factory. Players must grab packs in order to hack electrical circuits or nab anything from afar. As players explore the mysterious facility you try not to get caught.
This game is not suitable for primary aged children as it contains some frightening and disturbing content that is very upsetting to view.
SQUID GAMES
Netflix’s Squid Game is set to become the streaming service’s most successful show of all time, with huge numbers of viewers taking to social media to discuss each new episode. The South Korean thriller features some scenes of fairly brutal violence and is rated 15 by the BBFC. It follows a group of adults who compete to win innocent-looking playground games, but who are killed if they do not succeed at the tasks.
Squid Game’s 15 rating has not prevented clips and images from the show being uploaded onto social media sites such as TikTok, with the #SquidGame hashtag being viewed more than 22.8 billion times. There have been reports of children who have accounts on these platforms inadvertently viewing gory, explicit scenes from the programme, and parents and carers should be mindful of the prevalence of these uploads.
Chad Wild Clay
A Youtuber called Chad Wild Clay posts You Tube videos that look and sound very child friendly but when you watch them they are actually about weapons - knives, knuckle gloves that can have blades attached, concealed knives in everyday objects.
The most concerning thing is that these videos are targeting younger children and there is no age restriction attached. If parents glanced at the video they could think it is suitable for their child to watch as it is just like the videos where children are opening surprise toys.
Fortnite
Please could parents be aware that the game does feature violence, in-game purchasing, and also the option for group chat, which is unfiltered and accessible to strangers.
As with any age restricted programs our guidance is to avoid the game.
Houseparty
This group video chat is a video-focused social media app. Friends (and friends of friends) can communicate with each other via live video and texts. There is no screening and the video is live, there's always the possibility of inappropriate content for children
Further Guidance
Online safety guidance:
These resources provide guidance for parents and carers to keep children safe online. They will, amongst other things, support you to talk to your child about a range of online safety issues, set up home filtering in a child-friendly way and set up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices:
If you have any safeguarding concerns then please contact your child's class teacher in the first instance or Mrs L Wilson, the Designated Safeguarding Lead, on enquiries@bracebridge.lincs.sch.uk