Back to School: Social Media advice for teachers from the Professionals Online Safety Helpline

In this blog, Kat Tremlett – Professionals Online Safety Helpline Practitioner, looks at some of the key questions posed by teachers about how to manage the growing role of social media.

How can social media help me as a teacher?

As a teacher, you can use social media to your advantage, both in terms of engaging with your pupils and showing off your own abilities as a teacher. There are two aspects in which social media can help teachers:

As an organisation

Many schools have social media profiles and use it as a way to shout about their achievements and promote all the great work that often goes unseen.

If your pupils have made a fantastic art project for example, sharing it on social media can be a great way to encourage them. Seeing other people reacting positively to their work can be hugely rewarding and build a real sense of pride among them.

It can also be a really useful tool to communicate with parents & carers who may be otherwise hard to reach and difficult to engage in face to face conversations.

Individually

For you, the likes of LinkedIn offer a great platform for teachers to network with other like-minded professionals, share ideas, such as brilliant lesson plans or look for advice on a subject from someone else who may have more expertise on the subject.

I want to share online the great work that my pupils are doing. How do I do this safely?

Context is everything here – if pupils produce a fantastic piece of work sharing it on social media can be a great way to showcase their work, but before you do so, you do need to consider factors like their age and whether you have appropriate consent.

If a child is under the age of 18 and you share a photo or video of them working on a project on social media without getting express consent from their parent beforehand, you could find yourself in a difficult situation. It may be slightly different for older pupils e.g. an A-Level art student who is keen to raise their profile, but you should still check with them first.

Key things to remember here are: If a person is under 18, as well as needing their consent, you will also need their parent’s, and it needs to explicitly allow you to share their image publically. You also need to specify  in what context it’s being shared and to what audience. For over 18s, you need that consent from the individual.

Ultimately it’s about thinking about the subject and the audience you’re sharing their images with. Think about how much information you need to share to get your message across without sharing too many personal details.

I’m a new teacher – what do I need to do to set up my social media to protect myself?

As you embark on a new career it’s a good time to review your social media profiles and privacy settings. Think about what information you’re happy to make public, and for a prospective employer, parent or pupil to see. Are you happy for them to see your holiday photos or pictures from your teenage years?

Also it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s not uncommon for prospective employers to research candidates’ on social media so it’s a good idea to make sure yours is a fair reflection of the person and the image you want to portray.

A lot of people use different platforms in different ways, for example maybe Twitter is better for work-related posts and Facebook for personal use. Think about how you want to use it and update your account settings to reflect it.

Our social media checklists offer advice and guidance on privacy settings for the main social media networking platforms.

Can I accept parents and pupils as a friend or follower on social media?

There’s not a one-size-fits-all answer to this. Different education settings have different policies around this so it varies depending on where you work.

When it comes to parents, sometimes it can be difficult not to be friends with some people. In smaller schools in rural areas, there are often a lot of parents who are already friends with teachers before their child joins the school, whereas in a larger school in a city setting this may be less likely.

If it’s in line with school policies, and you’re happy for parents to see what you share online, it’s down to your personal discretion.

As for being friends with pupils on social media, it’s not generally something we would recommend. There needs to be a certain amount of professional distance between teachers and pupils and being friends with a young person could blur these boundaries.

It’s worth considering what kind of issues it could cause if one of your pupils starts messaging you or tagging you in posts on social media. This could cause concern among other parents and teachers and make your life at school quite challenging.

If you’re looking for a way to collaborate with pupils on a school project, there are other, more suitable virtual learning environments dedicated to education.

How do I make sure that students can’t find me on social media?

This is very difficult. There are precautions you can take, such as making your profile more private so that people can’t see what you post unless they’re already friends with you. On Facebook and Instagram your profile picture and your cover photo are never private, so if you don’t want people to be able to identify you from a quick online search, think about what personal information you share.

There is a real-name policy on Facebook but for other social media platforms you don’t have to use your real name, so that you don’t come up in searches. If you do use your real name it’s a good idea to make sure that your profile picture is one you’re happy for people to see. If you’re comfortable that anyone searching for you will be able to see you in your bikini then great, but if not, best to save that one just for friends. Tools like SWGfL’s online safety toolkit Boost enable users to set up reputation alerts for your name and your school’s so that you can keep an eye on when you’re mentioned online.

It’s also important to consider that just because you don’t have a profile, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a presence on social media. If your friends have accounts it’s quite possible they’ve shared photos with you in that you’re not aware of. Talk to your friends and family about posting photos with you in them and how this can impact your work. Sometimes they may not realise and all it takes is a quick conversation.

What can I do if I have a concern about the way another teacher is using social media?

This depends on the nature of your concern, which generally falls into two camps.

Professionalism

If you think that a fellow teacher is sharing too much content online that you feel reflects badly on the school or other teachers, try talking to them about it directly in the first instance. It may be that your school could benefit from some professional development training (SWGfL can provide this as part of it work as a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre).

We have also produced a resource with London Grid for Learning on Managing your school’s reputation.

If the issue continues you should report the issue to someone senior within the school.

And of course, if you just want to talk with people that know, get in touch with us on the Professionals Online Safety Helpline.

Safeguarding

If something doesn’t feel quite right, it probably isn’t, so trust your instinct. In situations like this it’s far better to report something and be proven wrong than to ignore your concerns and find out you were right.

If you think a member of school staff is using social media inappropriately – e.g. to contact pupils – then you should raise this as a safeguarding concern. Each Local Authority has different policies around how schools should report allegations of abuse, so speak with your school’s safeguarding lead about this.

Any allegation of abuse, no matter how it’s made, should be investigated appropriately. Even if an allegation is made via social media the Local Authority has a duty of care to investigate this.

Where can I go if I have any concerns about social media throughout the year?

The Professionals Online Safety Helpline is available for all professionals working with young people in the UK with any online safety concerns.

We offer free, independent, expert advice about a variety of topics including: sexting, gaming, bullying, managing your professional reputation online, grooming and many more.

We have unique relationships with industry - including direct channels to escalate concerns to social media companies and many websites.

The helpline is available: Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm. All email enquiries will be responded to during our normal working hours.

Get in touch:

Call: 0344 381 4772*

Email: helpline@saferinternet.org.uk

*Calls cost the same as standard landline starting ‘01’ or '02’. If your phone tariff offers inclusive calls to landlines, calls to 0345 numbers will also be included.

social media

POSH

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Talking to young people about Persuasive Design

We know that as adults it can be difficult to manage the amount of time spent online, Ofcom’s most recent Communications Market Report (August 2018) found that we check or use our smartphones on average every 12 minutes while awake. Young people face these same problems online, with almost half of 12-15 year olds (47%) saying that they find it hard to control their screen time.

In this blog we look at the ways in which technology is designed to ensure it is as enticing as possible, and how to combat this.

It can be hard to talk to young people about the time they spend online. A useful way to spark this discussion is by looking at the design of the sites and technology your child uses, and discussing the ways in which it keeps you online for longer. These discussions can empower young people to understand how they navigate the online world, allowing them to actively make positive choices about the sites and settings that they use, and how long they use them for.

Persuasive Design

Mobile phones and online technologies are inherently (and very cleverly) designed to keep us connected and engaged through ‘persuasive design’. Thankfully, many providers are now sharing tools and information to help users manage their screen time.

But what are the design elements that make our devices so enticing?

Infinite scrolling

In the past, search responses were presented in pages, where you were required to click to the next one. On mobile devices there is no end to the page. Instead, this has been replaced with endless scrolling.

A few years ago researchers in the United States compared the consumption of soup between participants using normal bowls compared to a self–refilling bowl. Without the usual visual prompts - i.e. the bowl getting empty - participants who were unknowingly eating from the self–refilling bowls ate 73% more soup than those eating from normal bowls. 

The same can be said of infinite scrolling; without the reference points of having to load another page, users can become disorientated, which encourages further use.

Autoplay

We’ve all been there, watching the first episode in a box-set on an on-demand player and it finishes on a cliff hanger. The temptation to keep watching and find out what happens next can be compelling. That’s why the majority of on-demand players have a built-in ‘autoplay’ feature that assumes you’ll want to watch the next episode.

One episode simply rolls into the next, and before you know it, hours have passed you by and you’ve binge-watched half of your new series.

What you can do:

Go into your account settings and disabled the auto-play feature. This way you have to actively select if you want to watch the next episode.

Pull to Refresh

Whether it’s your email inbox or social media feed the action of ‘pull down to refresh’ is common place. But why is this so compelling? 

Think about slot or fruit machines. You pull the lever, the reels spin, you wait with anticipation to see if you’ve won. This action, combined with the feelings of expectancy and reward have been likened to the feeling you get when you ‘pull down to refresh’ to reveal whether anyone has messaged you. 

Notifications

Again take a look at your screen and the likelihood is that, if you have apps installed, in the top corner there will be a red disc with a number indicating that you have messages or updates. The draw of this is extremely enticing.

The use of the colour red is also no accident. Red is proven to attract our eyes, further enhancing the compulsion.

What you can do:

Consider the way you manage notifications in your device settings. Do you want people to have instant access to you or would you rather wait until you next go into the app?

Colours

Take a look at your mobile phone’s home screen. Chances are it is awash with a kaleidoscope of colours. This is a critical aspect, specifically done to catch your eye’s attention. A prime example is the new logo that Instagram introduced in 2016, moving away from a retro Polaroid style camera icon to a bold icon using purple, pink and orange.

What you can do:

Go into your phone’s settings and consider changing your screen’s colour settings monochrome.

Friend Suggestions

Users of social media or messaging services will be familiar with friend suggestions and notifications indicating that someone wants to connect with you. This is a powerful social driver and tempts us to find out who this is to create a further social connection. 

Friend suggestions are equally influential in captivating our time; especially as the infinite list of people will invariably contain people we know. How does it know? Social media providers can make pretty accurate friend suggestions because of the sheer amount of information and data they have about us. Often this is right there in our profile, if not it’s probably on our device: contact details, location, email, school, interests, employer, mutual friends, etc. The list goes on.

What you can do:

Always review the provider’s privacy policy before you use it so that you know what data is being shared and where. It’s also good practice to review the apps you have installed and delete any that you no longer use.

For many people the fact that mobile devices are designed to keep users enticed is no great surprise. But with technology playing a bigger role than ever in our day-to-day lives it’s important to try to stay in control of how we use it. Being aware of how devices work and thinking about these tricks can help when it comes to keeping track of how we use them and how we manage their role in our lives. 

What your children need to know

Have a conversation with your children about the things that can make it harder for them to spend less time online, helping them to understand how the technology they use is designed to keep them engaged is a great way to help build their digital literacy.

Take a look at our resources for parents and carers for more advice on managing screen time with younger children, developing a family agreement, as well as social media checklists.

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What technology do schools need to be part of the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme?

Some teachers may be concerned that their school might not have the right technology to be able to run the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme. Danielle Antha, Project Manager for the programme, explains how easy it is to get involved!

What is the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme and how does it work?

The Childnet Digital Leaders Programme is a peer-to-peer online training programme to help schools and communities teach online safety. Delivered as part of Childnet’s work in the UK Safer Internet Centre, the programme is youth-led and designed to empower young people to educate their peers, parents and teachers about online safety.

Once recruited, Digital Leaders complete modules on an  online training platform and work through topics such as healthy online relationships, fake news and cyberbullying. The modules are engaging, fun and interactive, and consist of videos, quizzes, and plenty of helpful advice. Read our earlier blog on the role that teachers play in recruitment and guiding their Digital Leaders.

Once all the modules are complete, the young people become qualified Digital Leaders and go on to represent their school in the local community as online safety experts. There are also team activities to complete such as:

• Leading an assembly,
• Making a poster of potential online safety risks to be displayed in the school
• Writing a letter  to parents to help them consider ways to support their children to be safer online, such as information on gaming and social media privacy settings, and much more.

However, teachers may be concerned that their school might not have the correct technical requirements to be able to run the programme. With these concerns in mind, Childnet has developed the programme so that it is accessible for schools all over the UK:

What does my school need to run the programme?

All that’s needed to run the programme:

• Computers, laptops or tablets
• An internet connection
• Access to printing

For primary schools:

• Presentation equipment such as a projector and whiteboard, and…
• Bundles of enthusiasm!

Digital Leaders access the programme via an online training platform on a computer, laptop or tablet. There are also certificates available for teachers to print and give to the young people on successful completion of a module.

What’s the difference between the primary and secondary school programme?

The primary school programme has been developed to be more teacher-led, therefore the students and teacher will complete the platform together, using  presentations and workbooks provided by Childnet alongside the online platform.

The secondary school programme has been developed to be far more autonomous for the older students. This will enable them to complete modules outside of class time for later in-depth discussion with the teacher during their Digital Leaders sessions. It would be beneficial for the secondary students to have access to a computer to complete the modules either at home or at school during break times.

And we encourage schools to be as creative as possible with their team activities – no special technology needed!

To re­­­gister your interest in the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme visit our website.    

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India’s Online IWF Portal passes milestone of 1000 Reports

Indian internet users have taken the message about reporting disturbing imagery of child sexual abuse to heart, after figures from the IWF India Reporting Portal, reveal the 1000th report has just been made. 

The innovative online Reporting Portal was launched in India back in September 2016. Aarambh India and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) partnered to set-up the first Reporting Portal of its kind in India. The service is anonymous and allows users to direct highly trained IWF analysts to potentially illegal content of children, so that this material can be fully assessed and removed from the internet.

The Reporting Portal is available in both English and Hindi, and can be accessed here: http://aarambhindia.org/report 
Both the IWF and Aarambh India were keen to establish the Reporting Portal in a bid to tackle the issue of child sexual abuse imagery in India. Back in 2007, a Government of India report on child sexual abuse found that 4.46% of 12,000 children surveyed said they had been indecently photographed. Between 2013 and 2014, there was a 100% increase in the number of cases filed under ‘publication and transmission of obscene’ material, including child sexual abuse images and videos. 

Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO, said: “I’m incredibly proud that the India Reporting Portal has been so successfully established and that Indian web users have taken the message about reporting these horrific images and videos to heart. It’s a tough job to start from scratch and raise awareness, so people know where to report this imagery safely and anonymously, if they stumble across it. But our 1000th report shows that this important message is getting through.

“Aarambh has been a great partner to work with. We share a commitment to ensure that our service makes a real difference for people in India. Just one report to the Portal can be all it takes to identify and rescue a child from sexual abuse. So, this is an important milestone in our battle to help protect children worldwide.”

Uma Subramanian, Founder and Co-Director of Aarambh India, said: “We approached IWF when we realized there was a real need on ground for an online mechanism, where anyone could report sexually explicit images and videos of children on the internet. The continuing relevance on the India Portal is a sign that it was a necessary intervention. The Portal was central to kick-starting and taking forward the discussion around tackling online child sexual abuse imagery in India. We are happy that our partnership with IWF has made such a difference.“

A report can be made completely anonymously, and it only takes a few seconds. 

The report is then assessed by an expert analyst from the IWF Hotline team, based in the UK. If the image or video is illegal, the Analyst will use a global network of partners to get that content taken down. 

The 1000 Indian Portal reports could have a huge impact on number of child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet. A single report, or reported URL, could contain thousands of these horrific images. Each image depicts the suffering of a real child. Each time this imagery is uploaded, shared or viewed, that child victim is re-victimised. 

IWF

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Online safety films to watch with your child

The summer is a great time to engage your child in online safety activities. We often hear that parents are looking for fun ways to explore online issues with their children. Getting children engaged through film is a great way to get them thinking about how they use the internet and can be used as useful conversation starters.

In this blog we look at some online safety films which may be useful for you to watch with your child, to engage them in various aspects of online safety education.

The Childnet Film Competition

This year, the Childnet Film Competition, run as part of Childnet’s work in the UK Safer Internet Centre, invited young people to think about how we can all make a positive difference online by supporting young people to ‘Connect with respect’.

The winning films, judged by a team of judges from BAFTA, the BBC, BBFC and BFI, cover a host of online safety issues, from positive commenting to cyberbullying.

You can watch the films at www.Childnet.com/film-comp

BBC Own It

BBC have recently launched their Own It website, which offers advice for young people about some issues that they may encounter online.

Dave Howard, BBC Own’s it Editor, explained more about what Own It wants to achieve:

‘BBC Own It is more about looking at the dos than the don’ts, we want young people to have a great time online, as technology plays a huge part in their lives.

We want them to understand the behaviour and strategies that they need to adopt in order to have a great and happy time online. Our website is designed for 9-11 year old to use in their own time, outside of schools, giving advice in a fun and engaging way.’

Here is some of the content that your child can view on BBC Own It.

• Fake news
• “A stranger asked me out when I was gaming”
• Screen time
• When people’s posts are getting you down

The Adventures of Kara, Winston and the SMART Crew

Why not have an adventure with Captain Kara and her SMART Crew as they voyage through the online world.

These cartoons illustrate 5 e-safety SMART rules and include a real life SMART Crew of young people, who guide the cartoon characters in their quest, and help them make safe online decisions.

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Teachers’ role in the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme

As part of our work in the UK Safer Internet Centre, one of our main projects at Childnet is the Digital Leaders Programme, a youth-led online safety education programme open to all primary and secondary schools. 

Students complete online safety modules on an e-learning platform and are then encouraged to spread this knowledge in their schools and communities.  Teachers are assigned as Group Leaders and help lead their team of Digital Leaders through their training and beyond!

Many teachers are telling us how it’s the students who are leading the way, with teachers on hand to help if needed. However, when schools subscribe to the programme, whether you are a primary or secondary school, we do advise that each team of Digital Leaders has a designated teacher who will act as a Group Leader. 

Recruiting your Digital Leaders

The initial part of your role as a Group Leader will involve recruiting your Digital Leaders.  Each Group Leader will go about this in a different way, whether by selecting the students you feel best meet the criteria of a Digital Leader; empathy, interest in technology and good communication skills to name but a few, or advertising the role to students in the form of posters or presentations provided by Childnet once subscribed.  It is important students that sign up to the programme are aware of the important role they will play as online safety ambassadors in their school and that they are committed to their role.

Once the students have been recruited, consent forms must be filled in by their parents/carers.  When you send these through to the team at Childnet, yourself and your students will be generated logins for the online Digital Leaders platform and be able to access all the modules and resources. 

Leading your Digital Leaders through the platform

Your role as a Group Leader will then be to lead your team of Digital Leaders as they progress through the programme completing the modules and activities, earning virtual badges and points along the way. This enables your school to climb up the leaderboard, which ranks all of our international community of Digital Leaders’ schools. 

Young people involved in the programme are also encouraged to start discussion threads on the ‘Community’ page of the platform with other Digital Leaders across the UK (Group Leaders can disable this feature for primary school students).  Once students complete the seven core modules they become qualified Digital Leaders, and are awarded with a certificate and pin badge to wear with pride.

We have found Group Leaders like to present these awards during assembly or at an end of term prize-giving ceremony.  The Digital Leaders work so hard throughout the year and the formal presentation of the certificate is an opportunity for their efforts to be recognised in front of their entire school community.

The children were very empowered and enjoyed being a part of the process. They liked seeing where they scored on the Leaderboard and seeing their badges. The children had great ideas to raise the profile of online safety in school, but this needs to be followed up by individual class teachers to have the best impact. - Teacher

Supporting your qualified Digital Leaders to embed online safety throughout the school community

Once qualified Digital Leaders then have the opportunity to deliver team achievement activities in their schools and local communities, as well as a chance to complete the bonus modules on the platform.  Achievement activities include; running an assembly, creating a leaflet for parents and most importantly, using their newly acquired knowledge to run a Digital Leaders training session for other students. Several secondary schools have visited their local feeder primary schools to run a session and inspire the next generation of Digital Leaders. 

We encourage Group Leaders to showcase their Digital Leaders teams’ work and achievements with the rest of the school and community, as well as with the Childnet Digital Leaders team. By keeping us informed of your activities through pictures and blogs, we are able to share this content with other schools via the Digital Leaders newsletter and on our website in order to inspire other Digital Leaders groups and the wider public.

The Digital Leaders Team at Childnet will assist you and your team with any queries during the training process. 

How does my school get involved?

If you would like to find out more about the Digital Leaders programme and about becoming a Group Leader, you can register your interest to receive a registration pack with further information or contact leaders@childnet.com

digital leaders

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Safer Internet Day 2019 – Save the Date, Tuesday 5th February

Each year Safer Internet Day gets bigger and bigger with 45% of young people hearing about the day in 2018. As the UK Safer Internet Centre, which organises the day, we are very excited about Safer Internet Day (SID)2019 which will take place on Tuesday 5th February 2019, with the global theme of ‘Together for a better internet’.

About Safer Internet Day

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration sees hundreds of organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

The campaign continues to grow from strength to strength and, for SID2018, an incredible 1,700 organisations got involved in supporting the day which reached 45% of young people aged 8-17 in the UK. Meanwhile our social media Thunderclap reached more than 9 million people, our education packs were downloaded more than 800,000 times and our SIDTV films were watched more than 400,000 times. Read the full impact report.

The day offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community. It calls upon young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers, and wider, to join together in helping to create a better internet.

How can I celebrate Safer Internet Day?

Over the coming months the UK Safer Internet Centre will provide all the materials you need to get involved. This includes lesson plans, SIDTV films, top tips, social media assets, and much more. You will also be able to register your organisation or school as a Safer Internet Day supporter and appear on our supporter list.

The success of the day is dependent on everyone coming together to make the biggest noise possible. We know from past years about what a difference it can make and help provide the space and time to spark important conversations about how to use the internet positively and safely. From a survey of teachers who participated in Safer Internet Day, 95% said that it encouraged conversations about the safe use of the internet between teachers and pupils with 41% saying it led to disclosures of potential safeguarding issues online.

Keep an eye on the UK Safer Internet Centre social media pages to find out all of the latest Safer Internet Day news.

Twitter: @UK_SIC

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saferinternetuk

Instagram: @uk_sic

Safer Internet Day

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Answering parents commonly asked online safety questions

Childnet, a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, give advice for parents and carers, answering some of the questions parents most frequently ask about online safety.

Childnet’s Education Team speak to young people, staff and parents all across the country about online safety. In the last year our education team have spoken to more than 2,800 parents, providing them with advice and answering any questions about keeping safe online.

How do I speak to my teenager about spending too much time on the internet?

Screen time is a topic which we have been asked about consistently for the last 4 years.

Spending time online is a key part of many young people’s lives, talk to them about the kinds of things they like to do online, and find out where they are spending their time online.

If you are concerned about the amount of time that your child is spending online it’s important to try to develop an understanding of what they are doing online. Simply telling them they’re spending too much time online or to turn off their phone can lead to arguments. Instead you could ask them about the things they like to do both online and offline, and have a conversation with them about how to develop strategies for managing their time online.

You can also talk to them about how to recognise the signs telling them they may need a break from being online. These can range from their body telling them e.g. that they are feeling tired or have a headache, or from their devices, e.g. their device runs out of charge or feels hot, or maybe they have just reached a point where it’s no longer enjoyable.

By introducing a family agreement in your household, you can have an open and honest conversation about the ways in which you all use technology, and come to a mutual agreement about the amount of time that you each spend online.

If you have children aged 0-7 you may find our screen time resource helpful, this looks at the issues and top tips around spending time online.

My child knows more about the internet than me, what can I do?

It is becoming increasingly normal that parents feel that their child knows more about technology than they do.

During our sessions we stress that it may be the case that young people know more about technology than their parents, but parents and carers have life experience and understand how to navigate risks and manage different life situations. A lot of the rules that you apply in the offline world also apply online, such as keeping personal information safe from strangers or reminding your child to always come to you or a trusted adult if anything worries them.

Our parent sessions explore the different risks that a child or young person may encounter online as well as offering practical steps to manage and minimise those risks. Above all, parents and carers are always encouraged to get involved in their child’s online life and to be open and honest with their children, letting them know that they can always come to them with a problem. We have created some conversations starters to help you initiate this discussion.

Other key things you can do are:

• Take time to explore the sites, apps and games your children like to use
• Acknowledge your children as experts, ask them to show you how to use the sites they use most often.
• Ask what them if they know how to block or report people or things they see when they are online.
• Ask them if they know what personal information is and why they shouldn't give it away online.

My child wants to join a social networking site but they’re not 13 years old. How do Childnet speak to young people about this?

Many of the social networking sites that exist (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter) carry terms and conditions stating that users must be over the age of 13 to register for an account. Children may not be aware of this when they sign up for a service, as not all services will ask for a date of birth or confirmation that they are over 13. Some children may also find a way around these checks by providing a fake date of birth.

In our educational sessions, we make children aware that most social media sites have an age restriction of 13. We encourage them to wait until they are the correct age to register for these sites, and to be truthful about their age. One key reason for this is that there are more safety features applied to accounts of users up to the age of 18, which will not apply if they have lied to say they are older than this.

We also warn that if anyone reports them as an underage user, their account will be deleted and any of their content on the service such as videos or photos will also be removed.

We always remind those with an underage account to ask a parent/carer for help in understanding the privacy and reporting features available. 

Find out more about the specific reasons that these apps have age rating and answers to young people most frequently asked questions in our blog.

Should I let my child play a game that is age rated for older than them? They say that all of their friends are already playing it.

It is important to remember that just because everyone at your child’s school is talking about a game, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are playing it.

Try talking to or messaging other parents and asking if their children are playing it. It’s easy for these kind of things to get exaggerated and you may find that far fewer of your children’s classmates are actually playing the game than they may have you believe.

In order for you to make a decision about what kinds of games you allow your child to play, it is important that you do three key things; research, discuss, and explain.

1. Research – Look at the age and content ratings in the game. Know if there is the capacity for people to contact your child through the game, and if there are warnings for language, gore or any other unsuitable content. A quick way to find out what other people are saying about a game or app is to check out the parent reviews on Common Sense Media.
2. Discuss – Speak to your child about why they want to play the game, is it the style, the graphics, the social aspect or something else? If you decide that the particular game is unsuitable from your discussion you could offer some more age appropriate alternatives. You could also look at some games the whole family can enjoy as recommended by families on the Ask About Games site.   
3. Explain - If you’ve decided the game isn’t suitable, then it’s important to explain to your child why. It may be useful to show them what you found in your research to help them understand your concerns. This way they know that you’re not just saying no to be mean, but because it’s your job as a parent to protect them.

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Privacy settings on Instagram - answering some FAQs

Over 800 million people use Instagram every month. From stories and memes, to photos and videos people use Instagram in many different way. In our research we found that 27% of young people aged 8-17 use Instagram on a daily basis, and need on average 246 followers to feel happy.

In this blog we are looking to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Instagram and the privacy settings that are available on the app.

What are the privacy settings on Instagram?

On Instagram your profile is set to public by default, this means that anyone can see the photos or videos that you post. These photos can also appear in searches and in the ‘Explore’ tab.

You can change the visibility of your profile in your settings by making your account private. Setting your account to private means that only followers who you approve can see your profile and posts. This also means your posts won’t appear in in the Photos tab of Search and Explore, or on a hashtag or location page.

See our blog about Instagram privacy to find out more about the default settings on Instagram.

What happens to my follower requests after setting my account from private to public?

We have recently been asked a few questions about what happens to your follower requests once you change your account from private to public.

If you have pending follower requests on your private account and then you turn it public any pending follower requests you have are deleted. These people will not be notified of this, but will be given the option to follow you if they visit your profile again.

It is worth noting that once you turn your account to public, people will be able to follow you without having to request to do so.                                                                 

I set my account to private, what can I do about the people who are already following me?

When you change your account from public to private the people who are already following you on your public account will still be following you on your private account.  We recommend that young people regularly review their followers list, making sure they have only accepted followers who they know offline.

They will not be notified that you have removed them as a follower, but if they visit your profile they will no longer be able to see any content on your profile. Do be aware that following each other is not linked so if you choose to unfollow someone they will still remain a follower of you unless you also remove this option.

If you want to remove someone as a follower you need to:

-          Go onto your Instagram profile

-          View your followers list

-          Find the person that you want to remove as a follower

-          Click on three dots next to their name

-          Select ‘remove follower’

What information is still public on a private account?

By turning your account to private only your followers can see the images, videos or stories that you post, however there is still some information that is visible publically on your account. At all times on Instagram, anyone will be able to see:

-          Your profile photo (although they cannot click to see a larger version than what displays on your profile)

-          Your username

-          Bio

This means that any personal information in your bio on Instagram can be seen by anyone, whether they follow you or not. We would recommend that you do not put personal information (including your snapchat username, age, school or location) into a space that can be seen by the public. It is important that on any account you have that you think about your digital footprint and the type of information you would be happy for people to see.

Read more

Privacy settings on Instagram – what do they mean?

Questions on Instagram: looking at the latest feature

What happens if I unfollow someone on Instagram?

Polls and voting in Instagram stories

How to spot advertising on Instagram

Instagram introduces new comment moderation tools

New Instagram tool helps users to look out for their friends

More control over your Instagram profile

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