Important Safeguarding Information

01 Mar Important Safeguarding Information

Dear Parents/Carer,

Important Safeguarding Information

Momo Challenge

Many of you may be aware of the media interest in the Momo character and the role it may be taking enmeshed in online material.

Momo is a social media account that can be found on Facebook, YouTube and Whatsapp.  When a person interacts with the account, they begin to receive pictures of Momo, a terrifying image of a bug-eyed toothless woman. Momo responds almost immediately with threatening messages and violent images to the user. “She” says that she knows personal things about the user and uses fear and threats to challenge the user.

We have uploaded onto the school website under the safeguarding tab a link from the BBC
and police regarding this issue and a flier offering advice from the National Online Safety Organisation, which I would encourage you to take the time to look at, in order to safeguard your child from exposure to this sort of online danger. The link to the BBC site is below for your information.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47359623

We would encourage you to talk to your child about the Momo Challenge. Ask them if they know what it is.  Have they heard of it? Have they tried it? If they do not know about it, share the dangers associated with the challenge. Discuss a plan that includes what they can do if they receive a message with the Momo Challenge.

We would appeal to parents to:

• Ensure they know what their children can access online
• Ensure children understand the importance of not giving personal information to anyone they do not know
• Tell their children no-one has the right to make them do anything they do not want to do
• Use parental controls to keep children safe

Should your child be affected by the Momo challenge, then I would urge you to report this to the police and to the social media site, they have used to access it.

Here at RSA Academy Arrow Vale we try to keep our young people safe on line by discussing online safety in assemblies and through our curriculum and we hope that none of our young people attempt to engage with this challenge.

Parent Info Newsfeed

In addition to the above, please also note that following some parental requests for further signposting by school to supplementary advice and guidance about a number of safeguarding issues we have taken the decision to add a newsfeed to our website from a joint CEOP and Parent Zone initiative. Please take time to visit our website and scroll to the bottom of the homepage to see the newsfeed. We would also recommend that you visit source of this newsfeed www.parentinfo.org where there is a wealth of safeguarding and well-being advice and guidance available to families.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Crane, Vice Principal and Designated Safeguarding Lead

and Debra Downes,  Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead