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Promoting safe watching and sharing of online videos

Ask a room full of modern children what they’d like to do when they’re older, and at least one of them will say that they want to be a professional YouTuber. A few years ago, there was no such thing - but nowadays, professional YouTubers are a new form of celebrity and making a living producing online video is more than viable. Inspired by their online role-models, and made easy through phone apps and cameras, children are experimenting with creating and publishing their own videos.

As professionals, it’s our job to help ensure that children remain safe online, particularly when using online video services. Denying access to these services won’t teach young people to stay safe online; instead, we must teach discrete knowledge and skills.

Online video services
YouTube is by far the most popular provider of online video, but other services, such as Vimeo and Dailymotion, offer the same. Free to use, and originally set up as a video-dating website, YouTube makes its money through advertising and has around 300 hours of video uploaded to its platform every minute. It allows users to comment on each other’s videos, (see our recent article on live streaming) and enter partnerships in order to increase audience size. The vast majority of video sharing websites, including YouTube, are designed for 13+ year olds.

Watching videos: what are the risks?
Due to the openness of the Internet and despite the work of real-life moderators and the removal of videos that breach policies, young people may accidentally stumble across or find videos that are inappropriate, offensive or pornographic. Children may also come across videos that promote violence, bad language, particular viewpoints and religious opinions. Young people will also come across advertising, some of which may be targeted at adults.

A key part of watching online video is the social interaction through commenting; this therefore means that young people may be exposed to language that is unsuitable or that promotes bullying.

Children should be encouraged to report or talk to an adult about any content that they feel is inappropriate; in doing this, they are asking for support and advice. A young person may also need adult intervention if they viewed something that particularly upset or worried them.

Sharing video: what are the risks?
Publishing video online has been made very easy and most modern smart phones have tools build-in for this.

Before publishing a video, young people should be taught to consider whether:

The video reflects them positively (will they be proud of it in years to come?);

The video is respectful (could anyone find it offensive or upsetting?);

They’ve protected their private information within it;

Everyone in the video is happy for it to appear online;

They want to share the video with the world, their friends, or keep it private.

Children should also be taught how to respond to comments on their videos and what to do with comments that are upsetting or those written by trolls:

To not respond, since responses can fuel the fire;

To report or flag such messages where possible;

To save any evidence of online bullying, as this will be useful later;

To block users where needed;

To gain support from a trusted adult.

For more information, visit net-aware.org.uk

Next week sees both Stand Up To Bullying and Stop Cyberbullying Day address the issue of bullying

In figures released by charity Ditch the Label in their latest bullying survey, 1-in-2 young people have experienced bullying, with 1-in-10 having been bullied within the past week. In addition, their research revealed that young people feel that social networks are not currently doing enough about online bullying, with many feeling unsafe online.

Empowering pupils to take the lead on tackling bullying can help in schools, and participating in the forthcoming anti-bullying campaigns taking place next week can help enforce the message.

Stand up to Bullying Day - June 13th 2018
Stand Up To Bullying Day was started in 2016 by The Diana Award with HRH The Duke of Cambridge and aims to raise public awareness about bullying and its long term effect, create understanding about our collective role in tackling bullying and to empower the public with the tools to stand up to bullying; wherever they are.

Whether you're looking to support on social media, run a session in your school or review your anti-bullying policy there's plenty to get you going. Schools can download a resource pack with ideas for activities and fundraising events to support anti-bullying and the Stand Up To Bullying campaign. There is also a Thunderclap where schools can show their support.

Stop Cyberbullying Day - June 15th 2018
Stop Cyberbullying Day was founded by The Cybersmile Foundation on June 17th 2012, to promote online positivity and good digital citizenship.

Since then, every year on the third Friday in June, Stop Cyberbullying Day has become a growing force of positivity.

Stop Cyberbullying Day encourages people around the world to show their commitment toward a truly inclusive and diverse online environment for all – without fear of personal threats, harassment or abuse.

To get involved you can use the hashtag #STOPCYBERBULLYINGDAY on the day with your content (images, videos, articles) to let people know you are participating on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube - supporting a brighter, kinder internet. Schools can also sign up to pledge their support via the Thunderclap campaign leading up to the day.

Join our FREE Membership service for our bullying assembly resource. E-safety Support members can also download cyber bullying specific resources and distribute Internet safety training. Safeguarding Essentials members have access to the full suite of cyber bullying and bullying resources including policies, teaching resources and staff training. Find out more.

What schools need to know about the impending changes to the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance

On 26 February 2018, the government released their response to the ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ consultation, which sought views on the proposed changes to Working Together to Safeguard Children and the draft regulations required to commence the Children and Social Work Act 2017. While not all of the changes impact schools directly, it is important that schools have an understanding of how local safeguarding arrangements will be changing.

The key points for schools
The main change impacting schools is that ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ will include an expectation that all local safeguarding arrangements contain explicit reference to how safeguarding partners plan to involve, and give voice to, all local schools and academies.

Currently, schools have a legal duty to safeguard their pupils; however, they do not need to be consulted on how other agencies deal with safeguarding – the updated statutory guidance will change this.

Despite calls from “a significant number of respondents” for schools to become a fourth safeguarding partner, the government will not go forward with this proposal because the statutory guidance is not able to amend structures set out in law.

Safeguarding partners
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 replaces Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) with new local safeguarding arrangements, which are led by three safeguarding partners. The safeguarding partners will be:

the Local Authority

the Clinical Commissioning Group

the Chief of Police

Some of the functions of the safeguarding partners are no different to those of the LSCBs currently. However, we don’t know if this will look different in your area. Some of these functions are:

to provide multi-agency training.

develop and publish a threshold document which outlines how multi-agency safeguarding arrangements work in their area.

publish a report at least once every 12 months, setting out what they and their relevant agencies have done as a result of the safeguarding arrangements, and how effective the arrangements have been.

In relation to relevant agencies:

The Local Safeguarding Partner Regulations will be revised to include entries for sport and religious organisations.

The statutory guidance will be reviewed to ensure the responsibilities of agencies are clearly explained.

In relation to the involvement of schools:

All relevant statutory guidance, including ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ will clearly explain the roles and responsibilities of schools.

As mentioned, the statutory guidance will set the expectation that all local safeguarding arrangements contain explicit reference to how safeguarding partners plan to involve, and give voice to, all local schools and academies.

Reviews and the national panel
A new system of national and local safeguarding practice reviews will replace serious case reviews.

In relation to reviews:

Safeguarding partners must undertake a concise investigative exercise where they receive information about a safeguarding incident within five working days of notification.

Child death reviews
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 outlines the role of child death review partners.

In relation to child death reviews, the following was confirmed:

The child death review process will consider and identify contributory factors to a death that could be modified to reduce the risk of future child deaths.

The government intends to provide bereaved families with a key worker to act as a single point of contact during the child death review process.

Every child’s death will be reviewed at a child death review meeting involving practitioners directly involved with the child’s care, prior to being discussed by the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP).

What’s next?
An updated version of Working Together to Safeguard Children will be published and the new safeguarding arrangements will come into effect. Local areas will have 12 months from this May to develop and publish their arrangements and an additional three months to fully implement them. You should be notified about these new arrangements at some point during this period.

Your thoughts?

How do you feel about the proposed changes? How will they impact you and your school? Do you see these as changes for good? Please share your thoughts using the comments section below.