www.esafety-adviser.com

EDITION 14 - SEPT 2018

#DITTO

‧Scroll Free September

‧Scams

‧Gaming Addiction

‧TikTok App

Foreword from

Alan Mackenzie

Hi there, I’m Alan Mackenzie.

I’m an independent consultant specialising in online safety, specifically within education to children, young people, schools and other organizations, and parents.

I ’m a strong believer that technology, for the most part, is neutral; behaviour is the most important aspect.

To understand behaviour, we have to be a part of children's lives in order to understand what they’re doing with technology and why.

We have to be curious and guide them to realise the wonderful opportunities that the online world gives to all of us, and be there to support them when they need it.

Hi and welcome back to a new school year. What a summer we had, wasn’t it glorious?

I’ve probably mentioned before, for my summer holidays my wife and I always drive up to the Scottish Highlands. I’m lucky enough to have visited dozens of different countries around the world from a previous career, but nothing has ever beaten Scotland for its isolated beauty, wildlife and empty golden beaches.

We choose a different area every time we go up and are always sad to leave. This year we went up to the Isle of Mull; specifically we wanted to go up for the wildlife, in particular the white-tailed sea eagle. Capturing this amazing bird on my camera has been on my wish list for many years, and I wasn’t let down when I went out on the boat trip. I managed about 50 photos, of which 6 were in focus (not easy with a fast-moving bird and a rocking boat) so I was really happy.

I also purchased a drone to take up as well, but sadly the weather wasn’t with us, I only managed to launch it twice. However the videos I got from those two short flights are memories we will treasure forever.

What we can do with technology these days never ceases to amaze me. I love it! I hope you managed to get away, or at the very least had the opportunity to chill out ready for what I think will be an interesting year for online safety.

Alan

DIDYOUKNOW?

InstagramisnowawordintheU.S.Merriam-WebsterDictionary:

Instagram-topostapicturetotheInstagramphoto-sharingservice.

Instragrammable-tosnaganInstagrammablemoment.

#DITTOJunior

Thereisno#DITTOJuniorthismonthduetothisbeingthefirstnewsletterafterthesummerbreak,but itwillhopefullybebackinOctober.Pleaseaskyourstudents if theywould liketowriteashortarticle,orperhapsyourdigitalleaderscouldundertakeapoll?

Here’safewideasforyourtoconsider:

• Whatareyourfavouriteapps;whyandwhatdoyouusethemfor?

• Do you think technology companies should take more responsibility for the content on theirplatforms,orshoulditbeuptothepeopleusingtheplatform?

• Do you think games are over-rated? For example, Fortnite is for 12+, GTA is for 18+ butmanyignoretheseageratings.Why?

• France isgoing tobanmobilephones inschools.Whatdoyouthink?Research thereasonswhyFranceisintroducingabanandgiveyourthoughts.

Ofsted-InspectingSafeguarding

Ofstedhaveupdatedthe“InspectingSafeguardinginEarlyYears,EducationandSkillsSettings”handbook.Thedocumentcan

bedownloadedHEREandthereisawonderfulsummaryfromRebeccaAvery

(KentCountyCouncil)HERE.

There'saverygoodsummaryoftheadditionsfromAndrewHallHERE

andagoodsummaryofchangesfromSEAInclusionHERE

SaferInternetDay2019

Everydayisasaferinternetday,butthedaytocelebratethisis:

Tuesday5thFeb2019

SavetheDate

When I first started seeing the hashtag forScrollFreeSeptemberIdidwhatIusuallydo,my eyeswent up in the eye sockets, a yawnanda shakeof thehead. Perhaps it’s anagething, I’m definitely star@ng to become aglass-half-emptytypeofperson.

Whatis#scrollfreeseptember?

It’s an idea fromthe Royal Societyfor Public Healthhere in the UK,quote -auniqueopportunity totakeabreakfromallpersonalsocialmediaaccountsfor30daysduringSeptember-unquote.

I’m not a fan when it comes to this type ofthing,it’smakinganassump@onthatwe’reallthesame,thateverything isblackandwhite,thatweallusesocialmedia(ortechnologyingeneral)inthesameway,andthatwe’reallatriskofharm,specificallymentalhealth issuesthroughoveruseofsocialmedia.

Butwecomebacktothatageoldargument,“Whatisoveruse?”

If something has taken over your life, if it ishaving a nega@ve effect on your social life,yourprofession, youreduca@onoranyothereverydaycommonac@vitythenfairenough.But the first thought that came to my mindwas, “Whatabout those thathaveagenuinereliance?” For example those with poormental health who rely on social media forsupport and guidance, those who arephysicallyisolated,andsomanyothers.

Almostdailyweseeanewreportsayinghowteenagers inpar@culararesoan@-socialnow

#ScrollFreeSeptember

compared towhenwewere younger. Isthat really true? If teenagers arecon@nuallyconnectedtoandtalkingwiththeir friends via their devices, doesn’tthat make them more social than wewere? Just because they’re doing itdifferently,doesthatmakeitwrong?

Thinkbacktowhenyouwereateenager;if you had access to all this amazingtechnologyandalways-onconnec@vitytoyourfriendswouldyouuseitinthesamewaythatteenagersdonow?

Somewill agree, somewon’t,nothing isever black and white, and that’s whatconcernedmeaboutthisnewini@a@ve.

It probably sounds as though I’madvoca@ng that there’s nothing wrongwitharelianceontechnologyasopposedtoreal-world,physicalac@vi@es. I’mnot,balanceiseverything,andI’mfullyawarethat foraminority, thebalance is in thewrongdirec@on

COLDTURKEY

Giveupallpersonalsocialmediaaccountsfor30days.

SOCIALBUTTERFLY

Takeabreakfromsocialmediaatallsocialevents.

NIGHTOWL

Takeabreakfromsocialmediaeveryevening,a_er6PM.

BUSYBEE

Takeabreakfrompersonalsocialmediaaccountswhenin

schoolorwork.

SLEEPINGDOG

Giveupsocialmediainthebedroomandimproveyour

sleep.

A_ermyini@alinternalrantIhadacloserlookatthe#scrollfreeseptembercampaign,andI’mhappy to report that I’m ea@ng my words,becauseit’snotasbadasI’dfirstthought.

It’s worth no@ng that I recognise my ownbehaviours: I’m a terrible procras@nator andturntosocialmediamoreo_enthanIshould;Icheck various accounts first thing in themorningandthroughouttheday, Ido itwhenI’moutsocialisingandmuchmore.

Iknowthat IcouldgetmoredoneandIknowthatIwastealotof@me.

Ratherthanaone-size-fitsall,thereare5plansin#scrollfreeseptemberasyoucanseeabove.

Iquitelikethis,ittakesintoaccountanumberofdifferentsitua@onsandscenariosandIthinkcould be a good idea for us all (adults andchildren) to give a bit of thought to, and notjustforSeptember.

Thismonth I’mgoing tobeabuferfly. Whatwillyoube?

hfp://bit.ly/rsphscroll

Alan Mackenzie

In lessons with children of all ages, we tellthemtobecarefulwiththeinforma@ontheypostonline.Wemainlytalkaboutthisfromasafeguardingperspec@ve,butthereareotherreasonstoo,privacybeingthebigone.

Under that umbrella of privacy there aredozensofdifferentaspects,andpeopleusingyour informa@onfortheirowngain isa fast-growingconcern.

I no@ced itwhen Iwasonholiday.A text tomymobilephonethankingmeforsigningupfor a par@cular service (in this case LearnSpanish) and thatmymobile phoneaccountwould be debited by just under £10 everyFriday

“WHAT??“

That’s not what I really shouted, you canprobably imagine the real words I used. Ichecked my bank account and sure enoughmoneyhadbeentaken.Idecidedtowaitun@lIwasbackfromholidaytoinves@gate,butinthe mean@me I texted STOP, which is whatthepremium-ratetextsaidtodoifyoudidn’twanttocon@nuewiththesubscrip@on.

On returning fromholiday,moremoneyhadbeen taken. It appears the word STOPactuallymeant“feelfreetotakesomemore.”

I was fuming. I considermyself prefy savvytoscamsofthisnature,butforthelifeofmeIcouldn’t work out what I had done, ifanything at all. Commonly it’s clicking on alinkoranad,butforthemtoknowwhoIam,send me a text and take money from myaccountrequiredmorethanjustclickingonalink.onalink.

Ordidit?

To be honest I’m not sure. If I had clicked onsomethinglegi@mateIwouldhavehadtoverifymy details and at the very least clicked somesortofsubmitbufon?

IscouredtheInternetforhelpwiththisoneandthere’s a limited amount of informa@on. Plentyofpeoplehavebeencaughtoutbythescambutno-one seems to be able to give a conclusiveanswerastowhatmayhavehappened.

Evenmoredisturbing, it’s likely that I’veclickedon something via my mobile phone, which ishow the scammer knows my mobile number,but how did they know my bank details?Accordingtosomereportsonline,itappearsthemobile phone company gave the details to thescammer as they are allegedly a legi@matebusiness ren@ng the premium rate 5-figurenumber.

Quitehonestlythemindboggles.Aphonecalltothemobile phone companywas useless, as faras they are concerned itwas legi@mate, Imusthave clicked on something and given myinforma@onaway.

Ofcourse,howsillyofme!

I did some searching and found that thepremium-rate5-figuremobilenumberthatsentme the text is used by a number of differentcompanies. By a process of elimina@on I wasable to find the company I needed. Theirwebsite is appalling with no informa@on, buttherewasaphonenumbersoIranganumberof@mes. No answer repeatedly. I sent emails. Noanswer. I found other phone numbers online.Nothing!

Itwas@metosearchforpersonalinforma@on.

Legi@mate companies are required to registerwith Companies House. Anyone can look onCompanies House and, for most businesses, itwilltellyouthenameoftheDirectors.Perfect.

To cut a long story short, it was easy to findinforma@on on this person including his realemail address. By this @me Iwas in a seriouslybadmood,howevertheemailIsenttohimwaspoliteandtothepoint,informinghimwhathadhappened, that I believed he was scammingpeople,and theac@on Iwasgoing tobe takingunless I got an immediate refund andexplana@onastohowhegotallmydetails.

Theac@onsImen@onedwere:

1. ContactAc@onFraud.2. Contact the PSA (Phone-Paid Services

Authority)andfileacomplaint.3. Takehimtothesmallclaimscourt.

Surprisingly,lessthan10minutesa_erIpressed‘Send’, I receivedareplywithanapologyandapromiseofarefund,butnoexplana6on.

I despise these people from every pore of mybody; it was only £20 which I eventually gotback, but it could have been hundreds, eventhousands.Thesepeoplepreyonthevulnerabletobolstertheirownbankaccountsandcouldn’tcarelessaboutanybodyelse.Iwaslucky,Iknewwhattodo,butmanypeopledon’t.

You may be wondering what the point of thispostis.

Firstly, scams and fraudulent ac@vity is geongbigger online, and the criminals are geongbefer at what they do. These people couldn’tcare less who they prey on. I was lucky, Imanagedtofindinforma@onthatIcoulduse.

This is a rarity. It may well be that this is alegi@mate business (especially if they’reregistered with Companies House) but whatthey are doing goes well beyond any ethicalboundaries.

Being vigilant aboutwhatwe are clicking on isgood advice, but it doesn’t alwayswork, and ifmobilephoneprovidersarenotproperlyveongthebusinessestheyallowtousethesepremiumservices then this sort of thing is going to getbigger.

Advice

KnowingwhattodoandwheretogoisthebestadviceIcangiveyou.

Firstly if something does happen, Google it. Iguaranteethatyou’renotthefirstpersonithas

happened to and there will already be lots ofadviceoutthere.

Secondly, report to Ac@on Fraud. WhetheranythinggetsdoneIdon’tknow,I imaginetheyare massively under-resourced, but if it’s acommon scam the more reports they get themorelikelytheyaretoinves@gate.

Ifitissomethingthathappenedonyourmobile,such as an unexpected charge, and you’re notgeong anywhere with your mobile operator,report to the PSA (www.psauthority.org.uk).There is also a ‘number checker’ facility so youcanchecktoseeifthey’realreadyaware,andifso it gives you the name of the company andtheiraddress.

There is lots of personal informa@on online.Some@mes you have to use that to your ownadvantageusingsomesimpleinves@ga@veskills.

Cyb

er T

raum

a

Gaming Addiction

The topic that’s hot on everyone’s radar at themoment. The media has no doubt brought youmany fears about your child being addicted andwith recent events such as Jacksonville you havepossibly found yourself reading about how violentvideogames‘produce’violentchildren/people.

Iamanadvocateofgames forgood. Iuse them inpsychotherapy and so in this edi@on I thought Iwould talk to you about the myths and spin thato_en accompanies video games, computer gamesorInternetgamesandhowandwhyhavingacri@caleyecanhelpyousieveoutthemuckfromthegold.

First of all I’m going to introduce you to anotherbrain concept. This @me it is how the brainworksunder fear, namely that which the media andscaremongeringtalkintheschoolyardsimbues.

So ifyouhavereadsomeofmyar@clesbeforeyouwillknowI liketosimplifyneurosciencesoyoucanunderstandandapplyittoyourlife.Thebrainisaninterpreter of informa@on that comes in varyingformats,namelyfromourenvironmentandbody.Itsmain func@on is to keep us alive. In Neanderthal

@mesthiswash o w t h e ysurvived andp a s s e d o ntheirgenessothatyouandIcouldbeheretoday.

Thisishowitworkedthenanddoesnow:

Behind theNeanderthalmanwasa rustling sound.Hehasafewop@onshere

1. Run away and be safe from what could be a@gerwan@ngtoeathimforteaorindeedaleafrustling.

2. Don’t run and risk the leaf actually being the@gerand‘gulp’,nomoreNeanderthal.

And so our brains from many years ago have notchanged so much since then. We jump, run andstartletokeepourselvesaliveanditworksbecause“Itsbefertobesafethansorry?”

However,in2018wedon’tneedtorunfrom@gers,mostly. But we do need to pay afen@on to the

Catherine Knibbs (BSc, MBACP (Accred), UKCP Adult Psychotherapeutic Counselling) is a child/adult trauma therapist and author. She is the leading researcher on cyber trauma in the UK, specialising in online abuse in all forms and provides consultancy, education and training on this topic.

Web: www.cybertrauma.com Twitter: @nibzy

thingsthatarethreats.Suchas;money,jobsecurity,buses,trainsandbadnews.

Welcome to 2018 and the gossip that keeps youwary,onedgeand terrified that your child is goingto‘beaddicted’, ‘becomeviolent’, ‘have irreversiblebrain changes’ (yes this was recently spouted inAustralia) and “your eyes will go square watchingTV.”Rememberthatone?

Sohere’swhathappenswiththesciencebehindthisidea. The media, teachers or parents in the yarddon’t tend to spend many of their waking hoursreadingresearchpapers(Ifindthisac@vitysomuchfun so I can tell you, you may not actually getanythingdoneifyoudid.Thesepapersarelongandsome@mes boring and have lots of sta@s@cs inthem). So, they look to someone who hasinterpreted the research. This can o_en be donebadly by non-scien@sts and even long termresearchers if it is not their field of exper@se andtheydonotunderstandgaming.

Herein lies a major issue: The bodies who havedeemed that Gaming Disorder is a thing (which itreally isn’t), have no experience of gaming, do notunderstandvideogames,nordotheyhavein-depthknowledge of family lives around gaming. That’swheretheclinician’scomein,ofwhomveryfewdoresearch.(IknowIamquiteonmyownhereintheU.K.andsoIhavetolooktotheU.S.forsupportandfurtherevidence).

Andsothe‘hype’and‘myths’aroundaddic@onanddisordersareo_enlackingrealsuppor@veevidence,theyarepassedalongbythemediaandadultswhodo not fully understand the terminology orsymptoms of addic@on, violence or aggression andso on, and because your brain has a primaryfunc@onofpayingafen@ontoscarythings,suchaswhatMr.soandsosaid,orJohnny’smumsharedonFacebook, youbegin to look towardsyour child forsignsofthese‘issues’andloandbeholdIreceiveacall from a parent who believes their child isaddictedtovideogames.

The research points to evidence of many of theissuesnotbeinganactualthingandhereissomeofthat research, through easy to read books (I haveread all so know the difference between highlyacademic books and ones wrifen for non-academics), also guests I have interviewed for mypodcast Cybersynapse, which you can become apatreon of from as lifle as £1 permonth ormoreand gain access to the latest conversa@ons aroundcyberissues(seelinkatthebofomofthepage).

I would suggest that parents and teachers take alookatthebook“MoralCombat”byPatMarkeyandChris Ferguson for an in-depth review of violentvideo games having NO evidence to support thattheyproduceviolentpeople.

Also a book by Anthony Bean called A CliniciansGuidetoGamersandVideoGamesinTherapy.

Although the @tle suggests you need to be atherapist it’s a fantas@c read and explains muchaboutgamingforyoutounderstand(un@lmybookisoutaimedatparents)

HavealookatGeekdadgamerasheproducessmallsnippets of videos each week to help youunderstand games and how to use them in yourfamily. His videos can be found on patreon.com/geekdadgamer

And for those who wish to look towards theresearch:

The Oxford Internet Ins@tute - Professor AndrewPrzbylskiandteam

London School of Economics: Professor SoniaLivingstoneandteam

Cath

Cyber Synapse

A podcast for parents and professionals for cyber issues.

http://bit.ly/cysynapse

APP

S

NomoreMusical.ly?

Yesandno,well,sortof.

Theapphasgonebuttheservicehasn’t.

Letmeexplain.

Ifyouhaven’theardofMusical.lywherehaveyoubeen?Amassivelypopularsocialmediaappwithyoungerteenagersandolderchildren.

Itwasreleasedin2014butdidn’tbecomereallypopularuntilearly2016.PredominantlyusedinEurope and the U.S., it had approximately 100millionactiveusers.

Essentially it’sanappwhereyousing(lipsync)andactouttoyourfavouritemusicalgenreslive(live streaming) and you could also upload the

videosdirectlytoyourYouTubechannel.

T h e r e w e r e t w oprivacysettingswhichis fa ir ly common,private or public, andthe majority of thechildren I spoke to in

school over the lastcouple of years hadthesettingtoprivate.

The service has beenpurchased by a Chinesecompany called ByteDance and in August theyremovedtheMusicallyservice,butbeforedoingsotheytransferredalluseraccountsintoanappcalledTikTok.

TikTokhasalsobeenaroundforafewyearsbutthepredominantuserbasehasbeenAsiawithawhopping300millionactiveusers.

It’squitesimilartoMusicallyforthemostpart;adifferent interface but the same short-formvideosthatcanlastupto15seconds.

Interestinglytheusersaren’tbeingcombinedasfar as I’m aware, I initially thought they were,however it appears the app will remain astandalone app in China,maybe it’s to dowiththemorestrictcensorshiplaws?Idon’tknowtobehonest.

Soarethereanyconcerns?

Aswithanyof thesethings, it isn’t theapp.Appsare neutral. It’s the behaviour; sometimes thebehaviourofourownchildrenandsometimesthebehaviourofotherstowardsourchildren.

As with Musical.ly, TikTok is used for livestreaming, broadcasting yourself live either to aprivate or a public audience. Musical.ly wasmainlyaboutlip-syncingbutTikTokismorethanthat, it describes itself as a ‘global videocommunity, making it easy for you to watchawesomeshortvideosandmakeyourownvideos’,but on the vast majority of the accounts I’velookedthroughit’sactingoutorsyncingtomusic.

If you have seen past issues of #DITTO you’ll bewellawareoftheconcernsoverlivestreaming.

Since early 2017 this has become an emergingissue whereby sexual predators are using appssuchasthistocontactchildren.

Just before the summer break the IWF (InternetWatch Foundation) released their latest researchwhich revealed really concerning statisticsregarding children being groomed, coerced andblackmailed into live-streaming their own abuseoverwebcams,tabletsandmobilephones.

Someofthehighlightstatisticsare:

• 98% of images found were ofchildren13andunder.

• 28%ofchildrenwere10orunder.

• 96%ofvictimsweregirls.

• 96%showedachildontheirown.

We need to be careful about demonisingparticularapps;asImentionedatthebeginningofthis article, apps/technology are neutral, it’s thebehaviour that iskey.Anyplatformorserviceonthe internet can be a target for offenders,particularly if it’s popular with children, so it’simportantthatwekeepconversationsgoingwithchildrenandtalktothemregularlyaboutwhatisright or wrong, and what to do if somethingdoesn’tfeelright.

For more information about the TikTokapp see the Common Sense Media guidehere:

http://bit.ly/dittotiktok

ToseetheIWFresearchseehere:

http://bit.ly/dittoiwf

CONTENT

Aswithanyplatformlikethis,there’sgoingtobecontentthatisinappropriate.Whenthere’shundredsofthousandsofusers,moderationprocessescanbeslowandsometimesseemnon-existent.

Remember,many(most)appsaredesignedforchildren13+.

CONTACT

MostappsdefaulttoPUBLIC,meaningthatanyonecanviewposts,followandprivatemessagechildren.

Doublecheckprivacysettingsandensureyourchildknowshowtoblock/reportusers.

CONDUCT

Conductisthebehaviourofyourownchild.Howaretheyexpressingthemselves?Areyouhappywiththeirbioandtheirprofilepicture?Aretheybehavinginawaythatyouarehappywith?

For more information:

http://www.esafety-adviser.com/onlinesafetypro

www.esafety-adviser.com