Social Media Update
The rapid growth of social media has an incredible impact on our young people and it is fast becoming the most common platform that they communicate on. Young people will rarely speak to strangers face to face, however, they will more often than not speak to a stranger online.
There are many websites that allow people to have live chats with random people under the guise of social networking. It has come to our attention that an increasing number of websites such as ome.tv are allowing students to have live chats with random strangers. Parents/carers and families are strongly encouraged to discuss the dangers of chatting to unknown people online with their children. Our understanding is that these websites, and others like it, can be used either on their computers or their smartphones and the website randomly matches people to meet online.
When discussing these websites, along with other chat sites, with your children you may want to consider the following:
- You don’t know who you are going to meet, the person on the other side of the camera could have sinister motives,
- There is no such thing as an anonymous chat, the person on the other side of the camera will notice something that will identify who you are, for example the crest on your uniform, a landmark in the background.
- The person on the other side of the camera could be recording your chat or screenshot your profile and then post it all over the internet.
- The person may seem nice, however, could stalk them on alternate social media applications like instagram or Snapchat.
The College is doing its best to ensure that websites such as these are blocked by our internet filters, but unfortunately students sometimes hotspot their phones. It is therefore imperative that in order to protect our young people we have open conversations about the dangers of live chats with them. More information about the dangers of ome.tv and similar social media platforms can be found on the eSafety Commissioner website. The attached article also has useful information about how to block the website and prevent your children from accessing it.