Monday 15^th April 2024

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please see below message from the Local Authority:

This weekend, a Year 5 and 6 group set up by pupils at a local primary school has been hacked through one child’s account, and its name changed to ‘Add your contacts.’

 Sadly around 250 children over this weekend have indeed added their contacts, with the hacked account now displaying abusive material including child pornography, which is likely to have originated outside of the UK.

 This group account has been reported to both WhatsApp and the Police.

 Please note that the minimum age for WhatsApp is 13 years old.

If you have considered the risks of your child joining social media and are still happy to take those risks, then please be extremely pro-active around monitoring your child’s mobile device and any use of social media, ensuring the deletion of any harmful content they find and deleting any links to accounts, groups or persons you do not know or have concerns about.

The National Crime Agency’s CEOP Safety Centre have the following useful information for parents:

 https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/is-my-child-ready-for-social-media/

Yours faithfully,

Mrs. H. Higgs

Headteacher