Last week we shared information about online safety and what the Harmful Digital Communications Act is.

This week we explore what if young people come across something upsetting online. Sometimes young people will see inappropriate, offensive or illegal content online even if they haven’t sought it out. It can pop-up during a game, someone could send you a link, a search can show explicit images or you could be added to a group chat without asking/wanting to join. It’s hard to know what to do in this situation so Netsafe has developed some advice to help you. 

Visit the Netsafe website for more information.

As mentioned above there are apps where young people will be added to group chats without asking to and many times, without wanting to. The dynamic in these groups chats are not nessassarily groups they would associate with offline. Many times there are other young people they may not know. One of these online apps that has this capability is Snapchat. If your child has experienced this, or any other upsetting contnet on snapchat, you can help them assess the threat and choose their response: 

If in immediate danger, call 111 and report to police. 

Ignore/Mute/Remove/Block.

You can report it to Snapchat here even if you don't have an account.