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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

Parents/Carers News

18 May 2017

People keep asking the NCSC if it's OK for them to use password managers (sometimes called password vaults). If so, which ones? Who should use them - private citizens, small businesses, massive enterprises? And how should people use them? Is it safe to put all your crucial passwords into a password manager, and forget trying to remember any at all?

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17 May 2017

Facebook is breaking data privacy laws in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and faces investigations in Spain and the German city of Hamburg, privacy regulators from those respective areas announced today. French authorities also announced they were slapping Facebook with the maximum fine allowed under French privacy law, of €150,000 ($164,000). To put that in perspective, Facebook generated $27.6 billion in revenues last year.

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12 May 2017

Mainstream media consider sexting to be normal.

'Data shows that sexting is a highly popular pastime enjoyed by men and women alike. As you might expect, it's most common among sexually active digital natives (i.e. teens and young adults). However, it's not only the young'uns sending out pics of their junk. Polls show that sexting is a hobby enjoyed by all sexually active age groups—right on up to retirees. Your grandparents—or at least, some of their friends—are now sexting.'

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12 May 2017

A mother faces paying more than £20,000 in damages to a school governor in a landmark libel case over comments allegedly posted on her private Facebook page.

A spokesman for Ms Smith said: “The message which prompted the case was only meant to be sent to a close friend. However, it ended up being posted to all her friends — clearly showing the potential pitfalls of Facebook.”

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11 May 2017

 

'You may well have seen news and social media posts about ‘Blue Whale’, the posts urge you to share to protect young people from a viral suicide game.

The ‘Blue Whale’ story is a hoax, or fake news, something which is permeating almost every news area recently...'

This article is produced by Penny Patterson at Havering Education Services explores and explains how the online and paper media exploit parents' fears about the potential dangers of social media.

All parents and adults who work with young people should take a few minutes to read this.

Download the document here

Further reading

here

and

here is a Buzzfeed investigative article on the subject.