I was contacted by some concerned parents on Monday who reported that their children's Whatsapp group had been infiltrated by a stranger who, then, started adding the children to other groups and exposed them to some 'unsavoury' language and, had it not been reported, potentially much much worse.

I am, to a point, pleased that the majority of children reported this to their parents and that their parents took action. Thank you.

However, having reflected with the Senior Leaders of the school, our overriding feeling is now one of deep concern and frustration.

Acknowledging the challenges of peer pressure and the pressure put on us by our own children, we cannot help but feel there is a flawed logic that is justifying some very apathetic parenting choices.

Let me explain:

There are a range of age limits for a range of activities in society - all designed by experts to keep children safe: alcohol, driving, sex, marriage, films etc. This includes Social Media. (The evidence of the damage of social media on children is clear - 'Facebook harms children' 'Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users'

Now, if a parent emailed the school to say,

"I wanted to let you know that all the children in Year 6 have been out driving again. We know they shouldn't but all their friends are doing it so we did give them the car keys because we didn't want them to feel left out." Or,

"I'm sad to report that all the children in Year 6 have been drinking alcohol: we know they shouldn't but it does keep them quiet and occupied so we bought them just a couple of bottles for a few moments peace and quiet."

...we would all agree something was fundamentally wrong with the picture. However, for some reason, even though we have regularly communicated the age limits and the worrying reasons for the age limits of social media - see image - many parents keep buying their children devices and allowing them to use them unsupervised, without parent locks or child filters which means that all of the children and parents who do put these checks in place are still put at potential risk. Please support us to keep ALL of the children safe:

For our part, in today's Newsweb, we share:

1. The Whatsapp FAQs on how to report underage users.

2. A range of useful links and information about on-line safety and also the effects of sleep deprivation on children's outcomes.

3. The work we are doing with Dr Buzzi, an expert in social media safety from Bristol University in partnership with Hertfordshire's Safeguarding Team, to try and support the children to be more aware and more responsible for their own on-line behaviour.

4. A planned update to our phones-on-site approach to ensure the school promotes technology but does not, implicitly, condone the exposure of children to smart phones and social media systems that they are not mature enough to navigate safely whilst unsupervised. This includes a Google Form for parental feedback.