Welcome to all of our new families that have started with us this term! All of our new students now have their laptops, and I hope that you have each received your welcome email from me containing all of the important web links to the sites we use here at Ripley. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email tech@ripleyvalleyssc.eq.edu.au 

Over the last term, I have seen an increase in issues among students involving social media. I encourage all parents to monitor and review your child's devices looking for APPS where photos are being hidden (more info below), and to scroll through your child's messages and social media accounts. As I often say to parents, it is not a matter of trusting your child, it is a matter of trusting their 12,13 or 14 year old judgement in a grown up world full of explicit and inappropriate content. The safety of each of our students is my highest priority. I have listed our top 10 most popular sites that our year 7 and 8 students are currently frequenting, with some further information about the sites, including why they are dangerous.

This is the most popular APP among our students, and the most dangerous. This APP is currently being reviewed, and looks as if it will be banned in Australia in the coming months due to how dangerous it is. Most of the students that I have seen have inadvertingly been giving their location away to strangers and contacting and talking to strangers around the world. Nudity and explicit content is the 'norm' on this APP. Research indicates that TIKTOK is the leading APP that is considered detrimental to teenage mental health issues and anxiety.

Instagram is a hugely popular photo-sharing site, owned by Facebook, so you may be more familiar with it than with other photo-sharing apps. Users can add cool filters or create collages of their photos and share them across Facebook and other social media platforms. The biggest issue I am facing with our students and Instagram are students creating fake accounts for the purpose of "trolling" someone. These accounts are difficult to trace without access to student's personal devices. I encourage all parents to check your child's instagram account, and ensure there are not multiple accounts.

There is no age verification and users have to provide personal information like their age and location. This is a place where bullying, nudity, violence, and profanity is common.

This is a virtual world game like SIMS. Users interact with each other as avatars. IMVU stands for Instant Messaging Virtual Universe. There is nudity and sexual encounters in areas that are for 18+, but there is sexual talk and behaviours in the regular area of IMVU as well. There is a Chat Now feature that randomly pairs users with other users and can lead to inappropriate pairings and interactions. All profiles are public, and there can be bullying and predators trying to get other users to share their phone numbers and to send pictures.

This 17+ app's motto is: "Share Secrets, Express Yourself, Meet New People." Whisper lets users set up anonymous accounts to make their messages or confessions overlap an image or graphic (similar to e-postcards), which other users can then "like," share, or comment on. While it allows for creative expression, it can also take overly personal content viral. The app also shows a user's location. Although the app is geared toward older teens and adults, younger children are finding their way to it and putting themselves in danger.

Due to the issues that our students are facing in terms of social media, I will be holding a parent information night on Navigating technology with a Teen including cybersafety and social media. This will be focused on giving you information about what to look out for, setting rules and boundaries, and further information about the APPS and websites our students are on. I will also help you with understanding how to monitor and filter home internet. Further information for this will be made available in the coming weeks.