Online and Social Media Safety

Message for Parents

With regular reports of children being targeted or groomed by adults via social media or other internet channels, we would like to remind parents of the critical importance of taking steps they can take to reduce the risk of their children becoming vulnerable to this behaviour.

Please do take the time to set up robust parental controls on devices and ensure that you set the passwords and codes and keep this confidential, so that only you know them.

In the unfortunate circumstance that your child receives inappropriate messages or images via social media, please report this instantly to the Police on the non-emergency 101 number.

There is some helpful advice relating to this on Hampshire County Council’s website:https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/safeguardingchildren/onlinesafety

You may find it helpful for your children to be aware of and to have viewed this website:https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/

Helpful advice is also available from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) website:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

Aside from the risk of exploitation, it is unfortunate in this day and age that content exists on social media that would be inappropriate, and potentially harmful, for children to view.

If you or your children receive images or videos on Snapchat, Instagram, Whatsapp or via any other social media featuring people that are naked or are sexual in nature, these should be deleted immediately and reported to the Police on the non-emergency 101 telephone number.   Many people are still unaware that showing or sharing such images or videos with others could mean they are committing a crime. However, if a genuine mistake is made, it would be treated as such by the Police.