Every week e-safety adviser Alan Mackenzie sends me weekly updates. They are useful teaching resources but also parent guides to keep you up to date with current trends.
Here are this week’s tips:
WhatsApp Now Allows Under 13’s
Essentially these are accounts set up by the parent on the child’s device, but managed from the parents device. As well as no access to AI within WhatsApp and no ads there are parent management features which include:
• Contact management – parents can choose who can contact their child and which chat groups they can join. Children cannot join groups without parents approval. Messages from unknown contacts are sent to the parent first for approval.
• Activity notifications – parents can view their child’s activity such as when a child adds a new contact or if disappearing messages are turned on. Parents will also be notified if their child blocks or reports a contact.
Link – Introducing parent-managed accounts on WhatsApp.
Link – How to set up a parent-managed account.
For Parents – What is LooksMaxxing?
With the concerns of toxic masculinity and misogynistic attitudes increasing, parents should be aware of related behaviours.
Looksmaxxing isn’t specifically related to misogynistic attitudes, but it can be related to masculinity, where young people are influenced to be ‘more masculine’ by being fitter and having bigger muscles. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, plenty of young people refer to looksmaxxing as leading a good lifestyle and being healthy (known as softmaxxing), but there can be other sides to this as well such as taking steroids or cosmetic surgery (known as hardmaxxing). There can also be mental health concerns such as social comparison, anxiety and self-esteem.
Internet Matters have created a really good guide about LooksMaxxing for parents including what it is, why it’s so popular, risks and signs for parents to look out for.
