Social Media and Sexting

Social media is a fabulous tool with a great many benefits, but it has a range of drawbacks that students do not anticipate.

The most common issue is one of "cyberbullying", which is a still growing problem with a child suicide as a directly attributable result also in the rise.

Useful sites with good information on cyberbullying

It is really important to have a dialogue with your child around this subject and the below link provides some good guidance.

Make use of social media an open and accepted activity. It certainly isn't going to stop any time soon!

Sexting

Equally, sexting incidents are on the rise for both boys and girls and once again, suicide is on the rise.

What does ‘sexting’ mean?

Sexting is when a young person takes an indecent image of them self and sends this to their friends or boy / girlfriends via mobile phones.

style[color:red;]

By having in their possession, or distributing, indecent images of a person under 18 on to someone else – young people are not even aware that they could be breaking the law as these are offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Protection from Paedophiles

This is arguably the least dangerous area for our students as by and large they show a great deal of self protective awareness. In year 7 this is a major focus of the e-safety teaching and is thoroughly examined.
Simple rules to follow: *Know everyone on your friend list personally and in real life *Don't give out personally identifying information online

Here are some links to resources worth having a look at.