Snapchat concerns in Year 5&6

Dear Parents & Carers,

I am writing to update you on a recent issue regarding Snapchat which involved several of our children in Years 5 & 6.

A group chat was created on Snapchat which I believe started off as a friendly group. Children within the group then added other children outside of the group-including children that were much older-and unkind comments were posted. Following this, a threatening picture was posted and an inappropriate, sexualised image. Due to the nature of this, I had to contact children’s services and the police. The posting of the sexualised image is currently being investigated by the CID and has been allocated a crime number.

The police attended the school site and spoke to the children who were on the group chat (parents of the children on the group chat were spoken to ). I then held an assembly to share the key messages from the police with all of the children:

• Posting a sexualised image is a criminal offence.
• Taking a screen shot of a sexualised image and reposting/sending this to a friend is a criminal offence.
• The age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old.

I also spoke to the children about Snapchat in general.

• Snapchat is an app for children aged 13+
• People can be continually added/removed from a group chat without their permission
• Anyone can be added to a group so children can be in a group with people they don’t know (this was the case in this incuident)
• Adults could pose as children on Snapchat groups
• There are parental controls available

As a school, we have sent out lots of information regarding internet safety however, I think the best piece of advice is to know what your children are doing on line by regularly checking their phone and discussing this with them. I was quite shocked to see what was posted on the group chat and would strongly advise, as a mother of a 10 year old, that children of primary school age are not allowed access to apps which are 13+ and are not allowed unsupervised phone use. Unfortunately, there are predators out there who pose as children and use these platforms to gain access to younger children.

You can find  more information about Snapchat at https://parentzone.org.uk/article/snapchat 

Kind regards,

Mrs Richardson

Deputy Headteacher