At National Online Safety we believe in empowering parents, carers and trusted adults with the information they need to hold an informed conversation about online safety with their children, should they feel it is needed. This guide focuses on one platform of many which we believe trusted adults should be aware of. Please visit www.nationalonlinesafety.com for further guides, hints and tips for adults.
T
Tumblr is a popular social media platform and microblogging site with over 463 million blogs on its platform. In Europe you must be over 16 to sign up, but the age limit is just 13 elsewhere. However, in both cases, age veri!cation is limited. The platform is designed to share di"erent types of content, such as videos, photos or short articles. People can react to each other’s content, share items they like, and even interact through the platformwith direct messages.
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What parents need to know about TUMBLR
WATCHOUT FORADULT CONTENT You can post almost anything on Tumblr, so it’s important you’re aware of what your child is exposed to. In fact, it was brie#y removed from the Apple store when it was found users were sharing illegal content involving the sexual abuse of children. There has since
ABROAD SEARCH FUNCTION
MISLEADING TAGS / ACRONYMS The ‘tagging’ function on Tumblr allows users to label relevant content and makes searching more e"ective. However, such tags often employ words with a dual meaning or strange acronyms that can lead to inappropriate content being associated with something innocent.
BEAWAREOF OVERSHARING Tumblr is a public platform and anything that’s shared on it can be viewed by anyone with a Tumblr account. It’s important your child understands people they do not know could comment on what
PROFILES AREN’TCLEAR Due to the vague nature of the pro!le function on Tumblr, it’s easy to remain quite anonymous. This means it’s di$cult for your children to be clear about whom they’re interacting with. This increases the potential for cyber-bullying or grooming.
IT’S EASYTO POST‘FAKE NEWS’ It’s easy for anyone to create and share information on Tumblr, whether it’s true or not. Sometimes, this is done as a joke. Other times, it’s done to be malicious or support an ideological or political agenda. It’s important to understand your child could be exposed to this
The broad search tool on Tumblr makes it very easy for anyone to !nd almost any kind of content. In fact, an NSPCC investigation found there to be content about eating disorders and self-harm that could be damaging to a young person’s mental health. There is no easy way
they share. You should remind your child not to share anything they would not be happy for everyone to see.
been a ban on being able to share ‘adult’
to stop this broad search function, so it pays to educate your child on the risk of searching for such topics.
misinformation and take steps to encourage them to question it.
material, but some
material still slips through the net.
Top Tips to Protect Your Child
1
ACTIVATE SAFE MODE You can turn on ‘Safe Mode’, which will hide sensitive content, however it’s equally important to monitor your child. If you see their behaviour changing, calmly o"er support and ask them if something is bothering them. 2
RESPECT ORIGINAL CONTENT 5 6
KEEPYOUR CHILD INFORMED Encourage your child to seek alternative opinions and news stories and not rely on a single source for information, especially if it appears to be unsupported. 3 4
FILTER CONTENT
REPORT &BLOCK USERS
PROTECT THEIR PRIVACY
It’s not possible to !lter out all mentions of a potential harmful phrase, but you can !lter out certain posts that are tagged with the phrase. You can do this in your account settings.
Show your child how to report and block speci!c content that is potentially harmful or upsetting. You can !nd details of how to on the ‘Community Guidelines’ page. Though blocking can be e"ective, you’re only able to block a single post. To block a user, you must add them to the block list of each post.
It’s easy to repost any content on Tumblr so it appears as your own. To avoid your child falling foul of any copyright or trademark infringements, make sure they understand the importance of citing the original author of anything they wish to share.
Check your child’s Tumblr account settings to make sure they’re hidden from all internal and external search engines. Turn o" the auto- play function on all media and set it so only approved friends can message your child. Setting strong passwords and two-factor authentication
will also make it especially di$cult for anyone other than your child to access their Tumblr account.
SAFE MODE
Meet our expert Claire Wo"enden has been a technology journalist since 1998 with a specialism in consumer technology (apps, websites, home computing and digital devices). As a Mum of two young children - aged 8 and 6 - Claire is passionate about helping to keep children safe online.
SOURCES: https://www.tumblr.com/policy/en/terms-of-service, https://www.teensafe.com/blog/everything-a-parent-needs-to-know-about-tumblr/, https:// smartsocial.com/what-is-tumblr-parent-teacher-guide/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=127&v=FbUImJMfRNs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6agr6np4_w, https://www.fastcompany. com/90304153/seven-weeks-after-nsfw-ban-tumblr-still-bulges-with-porn, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/06/instagram-tumblr-allowing-extremely-dangerous-self-harm-images/
Users of this guide do so at their own discretion. No liability is entered into. Current as of the date of release: 1.05.2019
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