Mobile Phones & Apps
For information on Mobile Phone use in School please refer to our Mobile Phone Policy.
At Highfields we accept that many parents/carers give their children mobile phones to protect them from everyday risks involving personal security and safety. Providing a child with a mobile phone gives parents reassurance that they can contact their child if they need to speak to them urgently. We also accept that there are times when teaching staff need to remain in contact with students (such as educational visits): mobile devices are useful in those circumstances.
However, there is a growing risk of young people using mobile phones having instant access to the internet, social media and a growing range of apps. These range through apps for homework; watching programmes; taking and editing photos; and playing games. Due to the advances in phones, they are now powerful enough to run much more complex video games which have online interactions. Games like Roblox and Fortnite, running on smartphones, are a common way for children to interact with people they don’t know online.
Location Services
Many apps now either request or automatically access to the location of the phone. Some apps need location to function properly, some enhance the app in convenient ways, some simply for targeted advertising and others don’t need the location at all!
All social media apps encourage location services so that people can share photos with, with their location, or “check-in” to places to let their friends know where they are. One of the most popular apps for location is Snapchat. Snapchat then also supports a Snap Map feature, which enables a user, if they and a friend follow one another, to share their locations with each other seeing where they are and what’s going on around them. This can be shared in real time and will even show live movement around the map.
There are 3 location settings users can choose from:
Ghost Mode: you are the only person who can see your location on the map. Within Ghost Mode you can still see the locations of your friends but they will be unable to see you.
My Friends: means that all of your contacts on Snapchat can see your location.
Select Friends: allows users to look through their friend list and then decide which of their friends they want to be able to view their location.
With the increase of location sharing, risks such as grooming and stalking are making it important to make sure the location is being shared with only known and trusted people.
Sharing information, images and videos
Young people often share images or ‘selfies’ and there is potential for some of those to be nude or nearly nude images. Young people share ‘nudes’ for a number of different reasons, and some situations are more risky than others. For information about the contexts in which images are shared and how best to respond, take a look at nude selfies: a parents guide.
If your child enjoys being online and uses social media apps, games and more, it’s important you know how to protect their personal information and support them to make safe choices about what they share online. Read this parents guide to personal information and how to protect it for more information to support your child.
Some of the most popular apps, sites and games are designed to make it easy to share information online. But once information is shared, you can never be sure who has seen it, saved it or shared it. If your child has shared something online they wish they hadn’t – don’t panic. Read my child has shared too much online for advice on how to support your child.
Live Streaming
Another popular feature used across a number of apps is live streaming. Live streaming is a visual broadcast via phone or laptop, where it is not recorded and uploaded – it is a live, real time video. The videos are therefore unedited, unmoderated, unpredictable and shared with no delay. Viewers can like, comment, send gifts and talk directly to the person live streaming.
Live streaming is highly appealing to children and young people as it offers the opportunity for them to be a creator and presenter and be seen by a potentially huge audience.
Risk factors involved in Live Streaming:
Developmental stage and sexual exploration - At secondary school age, it is a time when it becomes natural for children to start to explore their sexual feelings, and talking to people online can feel exciting. Unfortunately, the adults that they meet online can exploit this natural curiosity and risk-taking by talking about sex and introducing things that might be inappropriate.
Tactics such as flattery and affirmation - Lots of positive comments and compliments can make young people feel good. Live streaming platforms allow users to ‘gift’ emoji’s such as love hearts and coins and young people can be manipulated into doing things through flattery and the promise of gifts.
Power of multiple comments – There may be multiple offenders watching a young person on a single stream. This sense of group approval can make it much easier to manipulate the young person into doing something.
Fear – People can use threats when they are online to try and force young people to do things that they do not want to do, which can sometimes make them feel like they not have any choice but to do what they are being told.
As with all things online, the best way to help your child with Live Streaming is to talk to them about the risks, and be actively involved in what they are interested in sharing. Make sure they understand that some people may want them to move from the live platform to a private chat, and be wary of anyone they don’t know making this request.
Help them build resilience. Loneliness can be an issue for young people and offenders can exploit this. Ensure your child is getting the support they need offline. This could include conversations and activities that help build your child’s self-esteem and activities that that are not based on validation from online ‘fans’ or views.
If you want to know more about live streaming, the risks and safe use, watch this short video or read this handy guide.
For further information regarding apps and their content, please see the below websites: