The local authority has issued the following updates on internet safety:
A Guide to Online Safety and Gaming
As a new generation of young people arrive onto using multiplayer games and the internet in general this new year, it is more important than ever to make children aware of how to stay safe online. The SWGfL has published a pamphlet on how to best keep safe while using online software and games. You can find a link to that resource below:
https://swgfl.org.uk/assets/ documents/online-safety-and-gaming.pdf
Child Safety and the Metaverse
Christmas has now come to a close and a new year has begun. As pupils return to school, the annual playground inquisition will begin. Among their peer group, young people will begin to discuss what they got for Christmas. For many the answer will almost certainly be ‘a Fortnite battle pass, a new PC, a PlayStation 5 etc’. All devices which allow both unfettered access to the internet and expose children to voice chat, text chat and photo sharing with complete strangers. This year presents new dangers as VR headsets, connected to Facebook’s Metaverse have been released onto the marketplace. The Metaverse seeks to link users to the internet as a Virtual Entity through the use of Virtual Reality Headsets. This increases the danger children are exposed to online. To help you understand this new, fast changing issue the NSPCC has published a guide to both the Metaverse and VR headsets. To find out more please follow the link:
Understanding the Playground – Fortnite
Since its release 2017, the battle-royale simulator – Fortnite, has become widespread in classrooms and playgrounds throughout the world. The game, which features cartoonish characters, bright colours and violence, has had a mass appeal to children. Each year, more young pupils are induced into its overcrowded, multi-player lobbies, to the point that there is not a school pupil in the country who hasn’t owned it, begged their parents for it or played it round a friend’s house. As a result more children than ever are exposed to multi-player chatting with strangers, and financial exploitation via the game’s spend-to- gain-advantage operating style. Allowing children to use real world money to gain perks and costumes. From criminal blackmailing, to the coercion of nude exchanges by online ‘friends’ posing as children, the danger this game presents from a safeguarding perspective is clear. As an added complication, the language surrounding the game used by pupils is near-incomprehensible, making it harder to secure their safety.
Internetmatters.org has published a guide to understanding the game and its terms. You can find the link below: