We are sure you will all agree the extent to which our children’s digital awareness has increased since the school closures in 2020 and over the last year. This awareness has brought about essential access to learning, better access to services and has sometimes prevented feelings of isolation, provided entertainment and improved socialisation during difficult times. However, with the increased access to unfiltered material and unsupervised chat rooms, we have seen an increase in harmful and unsafe factors which all parents need to be aware of. We therefore want to inform you of some of the concerns regarding social media, specifically the platforms TikTok and Discord.
Please read the content below carefully. We would also urge you to take the time to regularly monitor your child’s phone, internet devices, (including gaming platforms) and any social media accounts that they may have, if they are at the legal age to hold one. This is an important safeguarding exercise that I know all parents and carers will take seriously.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a free social media platform for creating and watching short videos and sharing them with friends and strangers. Clips are often created using short grabs of music and can be enhanced by a range of tools such as filters, animation, and special effects. Most videos produced are of young people lip-syncing and dancing to popular music but there are also talent videos, comedy skits, challenges (sometimes life threatening ones), and informational clips. According to mobile intelligence firm Sensor Tower, in 2019 TikTok reached 1.5 billion downloads and was the third most downloaded non-gaming app of the year, behind only WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The popularity of the app, especially among younger students, is quite staggering.
Parents and carers must be vigilant in how their child accesses social media. There have already been several concerns raised in the media recently regarding the existence and accessibility of TikTok, especially concerning influential influencers who are potentially spreading ‘dangerous’ views and messages. This is a concern for our school too.
We are aware of a current issue about Andrew Tate, a controversial and concerning influencer, whose content and posts have been removed and banned from social media platforms, however the banned material is potentially still accessible by young people with a TikTok account. Concerns have been raised about the influence he is having on young and impressionable, people. We have seen an increase in the number of students taking on these views and not recognising how harmful they are to our children.
Who is Andrew Tate?
Andrew Tate is an American-British former professional kickboxer turned internet personality. He is a self-described ‘success coach’ and has a subscription-based online marketing programme called ‘Hustler’s University’ with over 100,000 subscribers. Tate has recently seen a rise in online notoriety due to a string of controversial comments and behaviours, such as:
- Saying that victims of serious sexual assault /abuse put themselves “in a position to be attacked” and “must bear some responsibility”, claiming most do this for advancement in ‘opportunity’.
- Leaving the country amid serious sexual assault allegations, suggesting it was ‘easier to evade charges’ and that it was ‘probably 40% of the reason’ he moved to Romania.
- Claiming mental illness makes people ‘weak’ and that depression ‘isn’t real’.
- Promoting gendered violence and misogyny on his podcast and posts.
These behaviours and more have led to his accounts being removed from social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram for violating policies on “dangerous organizations and individuals.” This followed a successful campaign by UK-based advocacy group Hope Not Hate to remove him from all major platforms. Safer Schools NI
We are sure you will agree that these kinds of extreme views are harmful to our children and can have a significant impact on them and our staff.
What is Discord?
Discord is a voice, video, and text chat app that's used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.
People use Discord daily to talk about many things, ranging from art projects and family trips to homework and mental health support. It's a home for communities of any size, but it's most widely used by small and active groups of people who talk regularly. The vast majority of servers are private, invite-only spaces for groups of friends and communities to stay in touch and spend time together. There are also larger, more open communities, generally centred around specific topics such as popular games like Minecraft and Fortnite. Users have control over whom they interact with and what their experience on Discord is. People love Discord because it’s a home for all their communities and groups of friends. It's a place where they can be themselves and spend time with other people who share their interests and hobbies. Conversations on Discord are driven by the people you choose and the topics you choose to talk about. However, many children are not setting their accounts to private and have met people from around the World without knowing who they are or how old they are. This has seen an increase in exposure to violent and hate language such as racism, disability based abuse and other hate linked to the protected characteristics as well as an increase in sharing of harmful sexual content which is not age appropriate leading to an increase in harmful sexual behaviour.
What is Harmful Sexual Behaviour?
Harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) is a term used to describe sexual actions that are outside what is safe for a young person’s stage of development. It includes actions that can harm either the child or young person themselves, or another person. It can include:
• frequently and intentionally accessing age-inappropriate sexual material online
• using inappropriate language
• undertaking mutual sexual activity they are not ready for with peers
• sending and receiving illegal images
• sexual interactions where there are significant power differences, lack of consent, or with force or threats
• engaging in abusive or sexually violent sexual behaviour online or offline.
For further information to support your digital parenting
The Vodafone Digital Parenting Leaflet covers the past 10 years of digital trends and gives essential advice about how to keep your children safe online. Please pay particular attention to bullying. As a school, the vast majority of the incidents we have dealt with this year have started online and continue into school. We have seen an increase in harmful sexualised behaviour such as sharing pornographic material from Tik Tok and other platforms into group chats which are unregulated and extremely harmful to children’s development.
The Discord Safety Information Leaflet for parents gives information about how to make sure your child’s account is set to private and ensure your child has a safe experience.
The Stop it Now Harmful sexual behaviour prevention toolkit is designed for parents, carers, family members and professionals to help everyone play their part in keeping children safe.
