Always be careful when you are using the internet. It can help you to keep in touch with your friends and help your education – but it can also cause harm – to you and to others.
Remember help is always available at school if you are having any problems online.
Don’t be afraid to talk to your teacher or another adult at school.
If you or anyone you know is worried about Child Exploitation, Online Protection or anything related to Internet safety please click the link below which will take you to the CEOP reporting website:
TikTok guidance for pupils and parents
Tiktok is massive at the moment (most downloaded app of 2019) with children and young people and most popular with under 16s.
13 is the minimum age according to their terms and conditions, and 16 is the minimum age to host a livestream, however it is not difficult for a child to lie about their age on there (and they will).
One issue is that all accounts are public by default, so anyone on the app can see what children share. However only approved followers can send them messages.
You can however set your account to private (which I would always recommend) to manage who can comment and direct message, but your profile photo, username and bio are still visible to all. But unfortunately, like most social media, children (and adults) are motivated in getting as many ‘likes’ or ‘views’ as possible, therefore this may encourage children to accept followers to increase this. Strangers can directly contact children on the app and there have been incidents across the UK of children being groomed and coerced to post sexualised content of themselves on there. This can then be screen recorded by offenders and shared with other offenders on the internet. Children can also then be blackmailed into sending more. Offender will actively look for children on these apps.
Advice for children using the app:
Go private:
* Head into Settings > Privacy and Safety and look for the Discoverability heading at the top.
* Under that you'll see a setting called Private Account. Toggle this on.
* TikTok recommends your page to lots of other users to improve video circulation.
* Switch the setting off and the account will no longer be recommended to other users.
Shut out unknown people:
* In Privacy and Safety > Safety, you can prevent other users from interacting with you.
* Most of the settings are on Everyone by default, but can be changed to Friends or Off.
* You can prevent interactions on comments, Duets, Reacts, users seeing which videos you've liked, and also messages.
Restricted Mode ON:
* Restricted Mode tries to limit age-inappropriate content from appearing for children.
* It's not perfect, and works through using computer-scanning systems – so some dodgy content will inevitably be missed.
* It's also possible to set a passcode to prevent your child from changing this setting later on.
* You'll find this in Settings > Digital Wellbeing > Screen Time Management.
Internet Matters has lots of info on apps/platforms. This link is for the info they have on TikTok (it is targeted at parents): https://www.internetmatters.org/?s=tik+tok.
Please visit internet matters for all app/platform queries.
Message from South Wales Police: June 2020
Parents of school-age children are being encouraged to be aware of what their children are doing online. During these unprecedented times, they are spending longer each day on the internet, so never has online safety been more important. Since schools closed, there has been an increase in the number of incidents involving indecent images being requested from, and sent to, children. Please - as a parent - make it your responsibility to ensure your child is as protected as they can be from this threat. Why not make internet safety the subject for a home schooling session before your children return to school? It could the most valuable lesson they’ve had - there are many helpful resources to help you and your child.
Please refer to the following links for further information.
Thank you
Tips for staying safe online: