Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About WhatsApp‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About WhatsApp [PDF]

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What is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging service, with around two billion users exchanging texts, photos, videos and documents, as well as making voice and video calls. Its end-to-end encryption means messages can only be viewed by the sender and any recipients: not even WhatsApp can read them. Updates to its privacy policy in 2021 (involving sharing data with parent company Facebook) caused millions to leave the app, but the new policy was widely misinterpreted – it only related to WhatsApp’s business features, not to personal messages. In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as scams, strangers and location sharing.

Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About Yubo‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About Yubo [PDF]

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What is Yubo?

Yubo is a social networking platform where users can chat and livestream with up to 10 friends at once. People can connect with others based on location, with a Tinder-style ‘swiping’ mechanism to accept or reject someone based on their profile pictures. The app has approximately 50 million users worldwide – but despite its popularity, Yubo has not been free from controversy. While the app claims to monitor inappropriate content, a newspaper investigation in early 2022 found young users being exposed to sexual harassment, racism, bullying and conversations with adult themes.

In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content and flimsy age gates.

Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About NFTs‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About NFTs [PDF]

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What are NFTs?

A non-fungible token, or NFT, is a unique digital record of a particular file – such as an image, audio track or video (non-fungible meaning it can’t be replaced by an identical item). NFTs let digital content producers like artists and designers control how their work is distributed and monetised. The offline equivalent would be owning a limited-edition art print, signed by the artist, with a certificate of authentication. The value of NFTs is incredibly volatile, unregulated and very much based on hype, publicity and marketing. These digital assets – typically collectibles, avatars for social media profiles or character add-ons for online games – are traded in specialised marketplaces using cryptocurrency.

In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as IP theft, scams and financial loss.

Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About Wink‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About Wink [PDF]

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What is Wink?

Wink is a messaging app which allows children to connect and communicate with other users. In a similar style to Tinder, Wink uses the swipe method for browsing profiles and accepting or declining them. Once two users have accepted each other by swiping on each other’s profile, they can then communicate and play games online together. The fact that Wink allows children to share photos, personal information and their location with other users has caused significant concern.

In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as grooming, cyberbullying and inappropriate content.

Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About Online Respect‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About Online Respect [PDF]

Download: Inspiring Children to Build a Better Digital World [PDF]

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What is Online Respect?

Our ability to communicate with anyone in the world, at any time, via the internet has grown at breakneck speed. For teachers and parents, it can feel impossible to keep up. Worrying about our young people is understandable, and not unjustified: in 2020, for example, one in five 10- to 15-year-olds experienced bullying online. Our tips highlight ways that adults can support young people’s positive online behaviours: by adopting and following ‘netiquette’, we can show them how to avoid getting into difficulty as they learn to negotiate the continually evolving digital landscape.

In the guide, you’ll find a number of tips such as protecting yourself, replying wisely and being forgiving.

Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About YouTube‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About YouTube (2022) [PDF]

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What is YouTube?

YouTube is a video-sharing social media platform that allows billions of people around the world to watch, share and upload their own videos with a vast range of content – including sport, entertainment, education and lots more. It’s a superb space for people to consume content that they’re interested in. As a result, this astronomically popular platform has had a huge social impact: influencing online culture on a global scale and creating new celebrities.

In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as connecting with strangers, inappropriate content and high visibility.

Please find the National Online Safety guide for ‘What Parents Need to Know About Horror Games‘ below.

Download: What Parents Need to Know About Horror Games [PDF]

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What are Horror Games?

Horror video games come in a such a variety that the genre can hard to define. The overlapping element is that these games are designed to scare or unsettle the player through gameplay, atmosphere, story, music, setting and ‘jump scares’. The most common sub-genres are survival horror, action horror, psychological horror, jump-scare horror and reverse horror. These games originate from a range of developers, including smaller indie studios which release download-only titles (that is, they aren’t physically sold in shops) and therefore aren’t subject to age ratings.

In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as adult themes, psychological horror and violent content.