Mobile Phones and Social Media

MOBILE PHONES AND SOCIAL MEDIA

I have written out previously about social media and its use by pupils from our school.  Due to some recent issues I wanted to write out again to once more try to get your support with this issue.

I have written to you about issues of inappropriate language and conversations amongst some of our pupils via social media platforms.  Most recently, the current social media trend appears to be TikTok and we are aware that some of our children are accessing this through accounts to post their own videos and communicate with friends.

On a very simple level, this should not be happening as this service, like the majority of scoail media platforms, are clear in their terms of use that users must be 13 years or over.

“You may not: access or use the Services if you are not over 13 or otherwise able to agree to these Terms.” Taken from TikTok’s own Terms of Service

Any such use is clearly a breach of those terms.

Whilst I understand there may be a conversation at home from your child saying things such as “Everyone else has it!”, and the pressure of wanting your child to not be left out; once again I ask for our parents and carers to have a united voice in this with our children and say no to such requests.  It is clear that the use of such services can result in anxiety, arguments, lack of concentration during lessons and friendship issues.

At the same time, I have also spoken with all the children in Years 4 to 6 today about such issues and also discussed the bringing in of mobile phones.

We have a clear rule for the children that while parents/carers may choose to allow their child to bring their phone to school – usually because the child walks to and from school independently in our oldest classes – such devices must be given in at the School Office when the child arrives at school.  It may be that where a child has not done this they may be banned from bringing their device to school.

This is to ensure devices are not used in school and protects everyone in school from any misuse of such devices.

I hope you can support both your own child and the school with this matter.

 Yours sincerely

 Mr S Hanley

Headteacher