Keeping You Safe

31st March 2020 - Houseparty App Warning for Parents and Students 

Dear parents, carers and students, 

As you may have seen in the media, a new site “Houseparty” is taking social media by storm. It’s from the same company that created Fortnite. Over the last 48 hours there has been lots of misinformation over social media about it and so we would like to share our concerns with you so that you can keep safe.

As with all live-streaming platforms, screenshots, unsolicited messages and self-generated sexualised imagery can put young people at risk. During these times we are aware that young people are accessing online games and platforms so we wanted to make you aware of the following concerns that have been raised about this particular App:

• ‘Rooms’ should be locked to prevent uninvited guests from joining – remember all rooms will lock by default if a user enables ‘private mode’. 
• If an uninvited guest joins a room they can easily ‘friend’ others taking part in the live stream. 
• It appears that when a friend is invited, their friends can also join a ‘room’ without the invitation. Therefore potentially increase the opportunity to cyber-bully and troll others.

Ineqe have posted a blog to support people with keeping safe and a link to this can be found here Houseparty - How Safe is the App?

The Academy takes the wellbeing of all our students very seriously. In addition to their tutor, students have the support of progress leaders for their year group, pastoral mentors and the senior leadership team.

Someone to talk to

Mentors are available to students in our Pod4U area, where students can talk to trained members of staff about issues or concerns. We offer extensive mentoring within our Academy, whether it is basic behaviour and wellbeing support or our Key Stage 4 Progress Groups, which are made up of small groups of students who receive one to one support from a member of the senior leadership team to push the students to the best of their abilities.

Bullying

All children should be free to come to school without fear and bullying of any type is not tolerated by the Academy. More details can be found in our Anti-Bullying policy.