To help ease isolation students will be connecting online which will mean accessing social media more than ever.

During lockdown young people will be messaging and video calling more than ever. It is important that we continue to be mindful of cyber safety and aware of the dangers of social apps and platforms, cyberbullying, predators, image-abuse and more.

It is recommended that:

• Parents/guardians have some form of parental control over phones/devices to help control and monitor what apps are being downloaded and used and when
• Online stranger danger is openly discussed ie what are appropriate/inappropriate conversations while online.  It is important students can come to a parents/guardians if anything ever makes them feel strange or uncomfortable
• Young people know to keep private information private when engaging and playing online. Unfortunately, the reality is young people are dealing with the nude and sexting culture regularly which can expose them to bullying or cyberbullying
• The risks of sharing and following someone met online eg. Snapchat, Instagram etc is discussed

There are an unlimited amount of apps available, with more being developed every day. Most have both good and bad sides to consider.

Below is a list of some areas to look for in regards to any app:

• Look for age recommendations  - these are put in place to prohibit the collection and use of information of children for the purposes of sales and marketing.
• Be aware if it is free - the app will be able to use your child's image, recordings and any other information used to interact with the app for the purposes of sales and marketing.
• Do not enable location during sign up processes.  During the signup process an app may ask you to 'enable location'. This will enable them to track your movements.
• Do not enable friend suggestions - this is based on showing you friends of friends that you may want to connect to and allows others to do the same.  It is extremely important that students do not connect with people that they don't know.  This may need to be checked regularly by a parent/guardian. 
• Wellbeing.  Although the feeling of connecting is positive, feeling left out/excluded, gossiped about, receiving unwanted notes/images is extremely negative and cannot be taken back or controlled.  These can have lasting negative effects on the student.  We also need to be mindful of positive effects becoming addictions and of overuse.
• Privacy - most apps are not private.  This is a risk for any conversation and for enabling 'connection' with complete strangers. 

Education and empowerment is the key to people staying safe. 

Stay safe, healthy and connected.  

For further information visit Netsafe.