Safer schools issues guidance on furries in school

I presume you don't know anything about comic con, or other conventions where people dress up as different characters, cosplay ect ?

A lot of children are into Anime and Manga and cutesy ears and animals is a part of that. There is a line. An innocent line. Unfortunately though, in this particular social hobby pervs have got closer to imitating something innocent in order to reel in children. That is the problem.

Years ago, Playboy put their bunny sign on children's pencil cases and stationery and it was selling on the high street. A bunny is both a cute symbol of innocence and a symbol of sex. It was eventually crushed. I don't see them now. But I remember being shocked to see playboy themed stuff selling in WHSmith and Woolworths. To a child how would they be able to tell the difference between cutesy bunny art and Playboy bunny art? Both are cute right?

The kneejerk reaction here "some of them are weird pervs therefore they all are" seems to be part of what the advice is aiming to guard against. Maybe I'm wrong - I don't know any furries - but to paint them all with the same brush seems unfair to me. Plenty of fandom spaces have weird pervy elements whilst also including loads of perfectly decent people. The advice says that much of what it suggests may apply to other fandom communities.

"Why do they do it if it isn't sexual?" I don't know, but plenty of people have hobbies I don't understand. Some may just like being part of a community. The advice mentions some ways in which it appeals to autistic people, which seem entirely plausible.

The advice treats it as something people do for fun and warns that for some people it may however take over their life - portraying this as a bad thing. There's no suggestion that school kids should be allow to self-identify as animals or anything crazy like that.

Another thread rightly decries the use of "moral panic" in relation to the reaction against the trans agenda. But much of this reaction against furries looks a lot like genuine unjustified moral panic to me. It's hard not to detect elements of straightforward bigotry against people with an unusual hobby.

I mean, seriously, what would an adult community, largely made up of men, be dressing up as cats and dogs and in furry costumes for exactly?

It seems self evident to me that the entire point of the cutesy furriness is to disguise the sexual nature of the kink.

Everyone I know realises that furries is a kink. Some men will get turned on by anything, and being led round with a collar and lead with a butt plug as a tail, is just one of the myriad of ways.

Anyone who has the blatant bloody brass neck to say *However, there is no evidence to support this claim. *is lying.

Especially when they're setting themselves up as a bloody expert on child protection!

What next? BDSM groups claiming that studded leather harnesses are nothing more than a jolly effective lumbago aid?

Just saw this on Twitter. Yes, it would appear that furries very much are a safeguarding issue.
https://twitter.com/richk13/status/1652217362861490177

Of course it's a serious question. I'm a mother with a child in school. What concerns did the parent have when they spoke to you? I didn't know this was a 'thing' in schools, that's why I'm asking .

Agreed on all points.

We are very concerned by the response from Jim Gamble. https://twitter.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1652265297452081152?s=20

Any parent who has a child showing interest in the furry community should immediately look at what they have been looking at on the internet. We know children who are interested in furries are at greater risk of grooming. We know parents and teachers who are dealing with this right now and schools need to be aware of the potential that any child in their school who is showing an interest has been groomed online.

I have not read the thread but coming on to say that this is not us!

https://twitter.com/safeschools_uk/status/1652248339449106432?s=46

Will now go and read the thread.

Article doesn't really say much or anything? It's just filler.

I'm glad it actually addressed the "litter boxes in school" hoax though.

Perhaps I'm reading the wrong thing, but I've just read

There have been popular portrayals of the Furry community as ‘sexually deviant’ and focused on a sexual aspect of being anonymous and in a suit. However, there is no evidence to support this claim. Many Furries reject this misconception as not accurately reflecting their community.

No evidence???

I have never seen a portrayal of a furry that wasn't sexual. The ones at Pride were quite upfront about their tails actually being butt plugs. They were in a ball pool with unsuspecting children wandering up to them, entirely unaware.

I just don’t see how anyone can read that document and conclude that it is meant to dilute safeguarding. It’s meant to help professionals to identify risks and sort that from misinformation and misunderstanding.

If safeguarding professionals think “furry” means identifying as a cat, crawling on all fours and asking for a litter box then they may miss the fact that you might want to ask some questions to kids who are doodling anime animal pictures and wearing cutesy cat ears about what they are doing online. Many people may not even recognise that as a potential indicator of risk.

The document is saying that you may well come across behaviour that is not overtly sexual and not in itself harmful but which may be an indicator that children could be at risk of harm, particularly from online behaviour. As a safeguarding lead I see all kinds of briefing documents like this about specific online subcultures, vaping, particular apps or websites, porn, sexting, edibles. It is bizarre to me that the Daily Mail are spinning it that way and the insinuations about Jim Gamble are disgusting. He’s the founder of CEOP and has been a huge force for good in child safeguarding, particularly around online safety.

Is that a serious question?

Unfortunately, it is completely normal now for people to let their children have access to the internet, which is full of adults. It’s their parents who allow this. Any child that’s online is potentially online with adults. In this case the child was 17. I don’t know anyone that age that doesn’t have relatively free access to the internet.

In this case, thankfully, the parents were on the ball and still monitoring their child’s internet use because they recognised that the child was more vulnerable than most of that age. It was them who alerted me.

Many of the conversations we have on FWR should be out there for all Mumsnetters to see. Hiding this stuff away is so harmful, people need to know. I suspect many Mumsnetters and lurkers are in blissful ignorance about the matters discussed here.

surely this topic should be on the main talk board, not hidden in sensible womens corner.

Also 'Ecosystem' makes me disregard everything written after it.

Safe schools alliance should go out of their way to distance themselves, in my opinion.

And Yes, everyone knows that furries is a sex based fetish. If kids are into it, it's out of naïveté and/or grooming.

Advice about it in schools is deliberately legitimising it in my opinion.

I'm so bloody cynical about these things, that as I was reading that, I felt sure it was going to end up with 'and has been arrested for paedophilia.'

Safe school alliance and safer schools sound similar.

A look at the Safer Schools organisation:

'The Safer Schools Ecosystem is brought to you in partnership between Zurich Municipal and INEQE Safeguarding Group, combining over 250 years’ experience to create a multi-award-winning suite of safeguarding services.
The Ecosystem has been created by the experts at INEQE Safeguarding Group, led by CEO Jim Gamble QPM, founder of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.
INEQE Safeguarding Group and Zurich Municipal are proud to bring our Ecosystem to school communities, knowing we’re using our expertise to help your school empower, educate and protect your children and young people'

https://ineqe.com/

Jim Gamble:

'Jim Gamble has over thirty years experience from the world of protective services and a strong reputation for successful delivery in counter terrorism, the fight against organized and hi-tech crime and child protection.

A strong advocate of international multi-agency partnerships, Jim was the founding Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, the Association of Chief Police Officers lead on Child Protection and Child Trafficking and the founder and initial Chair of the Virtual Global Task Force, an international collaboration to make children safer online.

As the CEO and one of the founding partners of Ineqe Group, Jim has continued in his dedication to protecting the welfare of children and helping to make people safer.

Specialties: His primary focus has been on developing effective multi-sector partnerships that make people safer by integrating traditional best practice with cutting edge technology.

He is a highly regarded public, conference and after dinner speaker and delivers motivational leadership and specialist subject matter speeches around the world.

He is a frequent media commentator on issues related to protective services, best practice, the internet and child protection.

He is the independent chair of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Board, which under Jim's leadership is the first to be judged outstanding by Ofsted. In January 2017 he added to his safeguarding portfolio of roles when he was appointed as the Independent Chair of Bromley Safeguarding Children Board.'

In addition there is a team of roughly 40 people running this organisation. They call them 'geeks'.

Zurich provide insurance for the public and third sectors.

I'm on a sewing group on Facebook and there's a surprising number of mothers happily helping their kids make furry costumes. This comes under people being so open-minded that their brains have fallen out. Makes me cringe TBH.

Fucking hell I have no words. What is WRONG with people?

Some of these were online friends in furry forums

Children are online with adults? Are their parents informed of this?

Too many people have forgotten that being a furry has always been a fetish. I've been on the internet since the mid-90s and it's always been known to be sex-based.
There was even a CSI episode 20 years ago that made it clear it's based on sex for many.

I'm on a sewing group on Facebook and there's a surprising number of mothers happily helping their kids make furry costumes. This comes under people being so open-minded that their brains have fallen out. Makes me cringe TBH.

I can understand why kids can be drawn to it, cute costumes and all that, but who do we think is lurking in the shadows of it? Who might be attracted to easy access to lots of young teenagers with useful idiots cheering them on?

If anyone is going to the shops, please could they get me some heavy duty Parazone for my eyes/brain ? W.T.F did I read?🤢

One of the main overall perspectives to be taught is noone online can be trusted?
You have various conventions eg comic con where fans dress up in all manner of their favourite characters etc.

I worked with teachers aggressively pushing the trans agenda - why do you think that they would not be on board with this shit? There are creeps and predators everywhere and teaching is nor exempt. Plus if the leadership go with it you get a put up and shut up culture or you lose your job.