Mrs C. Boylan – Deputy Head of Safeguarding & Ethos
On 15th June the government announced a social media ban for under 16s which is expected to come into effect in early 2027. Whilst messaging services are not expected to be in the ban, platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) are, following the Australian ban.
Children will still be able to go online but the ban aims to reduce harm and improve wellbeing in the hope that children will have a healthier childhood.
Coupled with this, the government ban on mobile phones in schools as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, became statutory on 29 June.
We remind parents ahead of the summer holidays that monitoring devices is invaluable for maintaining your child’s safety online. There are various apps and tools available to help do this.
Qustodio is a tool available to parents to help monitor your child’s devices. It can filter, monitor, set screentime limits and so on.
Another option is ‘screen pinning’ on Android devices. If your child doesn’t have a mobile phone but you let them use your device to play games, for example, TT rockstars, there is an option to pin that screen so they cannot navigate to other apps or websites. On iPhone, the equivalent feature is called Guided Access. Both of these can be found via Settings on your devices.
Of course there are many activities that children can do away from their devices. Smoothwall, the company who provide our monitoring services, have put together a list of 40 activities for the summer. Although these are aimed at primary children, there are many that would be suitable for older children.
May I take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful summer break with your families.
