Feedback

Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

Parents/Carers News

28 March 2019

Love it or hate it, parents have made their way on to social media, and seem to be there to stay.

It's a great way of staying in touch - and it's always amusing watching your parents attempt to take selfies or use emojis.

But if they share photos of you online without your permission - and have no understanding of privacy settings - have they crossed the line?

Read more

21 March 2019

Instagram is teeming with these conspiracy theories, viral misinformation, and extremist memes, all daisy-chained together via a network of accounts with incredible algorithmic reach and millions of collective followers—many of whom, are very young. These accounts intersperse TikTok videos and nostalgia memes with anti-vaccination rhetoric, conspiracy theories about George Soros and the Clinton family, and jokes about killing women, Jews, Muslims, and liberals.

Read more

26 February 2019

It's disappointing to see people and organisations who should know better, sharing alarmist misinformation about Momo - again. I thought we'd dealt with this last time it appeared in our timelines on socialmedia.

 

However, if you believe a child is vulnerable, could easily be pursuaded by strangers to take their own life, and does not receive ongoing guidance and support from a parent or carer, then seek professional help for that child immediately.

 

The following article provides a clear overview of the Momo issue.

 

Read more

 

 

...And a flyer for parents by National Online Safety is  here

 

26 January 2019

A study from researchers at the University of Vermont and the University of Adelaide found that access to as few as eight of our contacts is enough to enable predictive or machine learning technologies to achieve up to 95% accuracy in guessing what a person will post.

From an abstract of the study, titled “Information flow reveals prediction limits in online social activity” and published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour on Monday:

Information is so strongly embedded in a social network that, in principle, one can profile an individual from their available social ties even when the individual forgoes the platform completely.

Read more