Anonymous Abusive Messaging Sites

[GrumbleDook]

The following was shared via the [safetynet] mailing list earlier today.

 

Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED//

 

Practitioners,

 

We are aware that many of you who work directly with children and young people are dealing with a high increase in Cyberbullying incidents due to the popularity of anonymous messaging sites such as Ask.fm, Kik and Dirty Little Secrets groups.

 

‪The majority of these sites are not UK based or contactable via the usual means. The content CEOP has seen has been heavily based around bullying, however sexual chat and imagery is also apparent.

 

‪With this in mind we want to reinforce to young people, parents and professionals some of the ways in which we can discourage young people from using these sites and also to highlight where they can go if they need support.

 

‪Because of the volume of reports we are currently receiving from young people we wanted to highlight some of the steps you can take:

 

- Advise young people not to post to sites where comments are anonymous - this is hurtful and harmful and there is no recourse for action (on these particular sites)

 

- Raise awareness of the sites with parents, colleagues and young people to discourage use

 

- Ensure that your own school policies, practices and procedures are up to date in relation to cyberbullying

 

- Ensure that young people know where to report both in and outside of school if they have been subjected to bullying or harassment on these sites.

 

- Support sites include - ChildLine and CyberMentors -

 

- In cases of suspected grooming via these sites - http://www.ceop.police.uk/report

 

You may want to think about increasing awareness of bullying and cyberbullying with young people and encourage them to come forward if this is happening to them.

 

‪If you have not already done so, we recommend that you register on the ThinkuKnow website at http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers where CEOP host a suite of awareness materials for children, young people and parents.

 

‪I hope this information is useful

 

‪The CEOP Education team

 

Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED// This email was classified on 01 November 2012 at 16:23:10 The above classification labels were added to the message by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.