URGENT - eSafety Warning

Hi All,

Today we received an email to school alerting us to some eSafety risks associated with some supposedly "child-friendly" websites (both of which we are aware of some of our children using).  I have pasted it below for your information.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns or need further advice on this.

The Blue Whale Game

A game where users who sign up have no get out otherwise the hosts ‘will come and get you’.  The users are given tasks to complete over a period of 50 days including things such as waking up at absurd times, tattooing a blue whale onto their own skin, self-harming and other extreme challenges.  The final challenge of this game is shockingly to commit suicide.  At the moment this is happening in Russia and Romania and some children have already fallen from roofs to their deaths for the final challenge.  I cannot believe something so evil exists, what a sad world we live in.

 

The second of these is a gaming site that is being used by a number of primary age children called ROBLOX.

This game looks just like a Lego game but there are two main concerns.  Firstly, there is a messaging facility as part of the game where youngsters can be contacted by strangers. The app states that it is ‘the best place to imagine with friends’ but with over 30 million users, you have no way knowing who you are talking to.   Secondly, despite claiming to be ‘Kidsafe’ it has been reported that a primary school have been able to set up an account where they were then able to access games for over 18’s. These games also included Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Halo.