Gooseberry Alert – Back to School

Welcome back to the new term and to your weekly ‘Gooseberry Alert’.  Please feel free to share the ‘Gooseberry Planet Tips of the Week’.  Helping to keep you and your whole school community Safe Online.

Gooseberry Student ‘Tips’ for the new term

The new term may bring new students to your class and new opportunities to make friends.  Before deciding to add your classmates as online friends, take time to get to know them in real life first.  It is important to know and trust who you are friends with online.  Being careful about who you have as friends online can help reduce the risk of problems later.  Please share with your students.

Gooseberry Teacher ‘Tips’ for the new term

New term, new staff new opportunities for problems online.  To help reduce the risk of problems online for new and existing staff, make sure colleagues are clear about their personal and professional responsibilities, when using technology inside and outside of the classroom.  Encourage staff to read relevant materials that outline school expectations when using I.T.  Use the new term as an opportunity to review existing policies to reflect your educational context.  Taking time for a quick reminder could help avoid problems later.  Please share with your staff.

Gooseberry Parent ‘Tips’ for the new term

If your child is starting a new school or is meeting new classmates, they may wish to add them as online friends.  Speak to your child about the safest way to be friends with people online.  Encourage your child to take time to get to know new students in real life first.  Remind your child that it is important to know and trust who you are friends with online.  Being careful about who you have as friends online can help reduce the risk of problems later.  Please share with Parents. 

Alert of the week – Sarahah

We have had several enquiries and been alerted to an incident of grooming, in an app called Sarahah.  This is an anonymous feedback app, which is being used to bully people online.  It is also used to befriend and groom.  Sarahah syncs with Snapchat and other forms of social media.  Users collect personal information from other online accounts and use this to help convince the recipient they know them, sharing names and specific locations.  This is a high-risk app that enables inappropriate contact with people online.  It is difficult to manage and monitor.  Our advice is to avoid this app altogether.

Reducing the risk:

  • Remove the app if it is already installed.
  • Avoid linking the app with other social media accounts.
  • Check online friend lists.
  • Avoid sharing personal information on any social media account.
  • Be aware of who can and cannot view your content.
  • If your child has been using this app. Always encourage children to talk to a trusted adult.

 

NEW RESOURCES… NEW RESOURCES… NEW RESOURCES…

Gooseberry Parent

We are delighted to be able to introduce our new Parent Handouts22 resources that inform parents about what they need to know and how they can reduce the risks for themselves and their children, when choosing and using popular apps.  Access these resources through Gooseberry Parent and Gooseberry Guru.

Gooseberry Guru

Learn how to secure online social media accounts with our new ‘How To’ presentations on Snapchat and Instagram.  Access these resources through Gooseberry Guru.

Gooseberry Student

Exciting things have been happening on Gooseberry Planet over the summer.  We proud to bring you access to Playground, Street and Village which are now supported by audio on IOS and Google Play.  Our new Town level will be released this month with our City level, hot on its heels.

Want to know more?  Visit us as www.gooseberryplanet.com

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