Would you report this to school?

[Springbokbounce]

Discovered that DS (Y6) has been sent extremely inappropriate videos/songs that are sexually graphic/explicit lyrics by another child in his class via WhatsApp. Is this something I should be highlighting to the school? Or not schools concern as it happened outside school? Would you contact the other child’s mother to make them aware?

Don’t want to cause issues but obviously concerning the content the other child has access to at such a young age.

I can tell you from personal experience of making safeguarding reports to social services: this isn't anywhere near
the threshold for social services to take action. They won't do anything.

There's some nasty groups on WhatsApp that young children are being added too.

Do inform the school, hopefully they'll get all parents to be vigilant for this (and also remind about the age limit!!)

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0l4z8n1p9o

Op definitely yes report however...

When people say...should I call the police, talk to the schools, go to a and e... Ring the doctor etc..

Just do it usually because all these services have their own in built triage system.

What's the song?

What's the song?

I remember singing Darling Nikki by Prince around the house when I was about 10; I had no idea what it was about, kids really often don't dial into the more adult lyrics.

Sorry to seem daft but why would you report it to the school? If you are concerned shouldn't you contact the parent, or social services if you are very worried for whatever reason. It didn't happen in school time and teachers aren't social workers.

Or do you just mean to let the school know that this song is doing the rounds, if they want to address it in some way in a general sense. I can see that might be helpful.

How would it be helpful? Tell kids not to listen to a song and watch it take over the playground in record time!

It's a song, just let it go, it'll be something else next week.

I don’t know what the song is, it’s not something mainstream. The video is anime and my husband thinks that the video and song were not originally connected. It’s like something someone has edited together.

I’ve checked and I don’t have contact details of the child’s mum.

Stop shaming OP over this, seriously. Your tone is completely unnecessary.

🤦‍♂️

Report to the police and school. It is outside of school but they will want to know. However it's your job as a parent to ensure your child is safe on social media- can you tell I deal with this day in and out at work in a school? Remove what's app and do not jet them have Snapchat etc either

Almost every song in the charts has explicit lyrics now. WAP anyone? It's not something I'd get het up over. My children have some very questionable tastes in music, but they also grow up in a house where consent, sex, equality and gender stereotypes etc are talked about openly and they have a good sense of what is right and wrong. None of them strayed off the straight and narrow by virtue of listening to music with explicit lyrics or themes.

Y6 children should not have WhatsApp for precisely this reason. Yes, by all means let the school know; but having allowed this to happen is something that you, as a parent, need to take some responsibility for.

Meta have only just this week reduced the legal age to access WhatsApp from 16 to 13. It is NOT for 10/11 year olds, however mature they like to think they are.

I fully understand it’s on me for letting him use WhatsApp. I relented to pressure and tried to compromise as he was feeling excluded. I thought it would be ok if I supervised his usage. Obviously I was wrong. He doesn’t have access to Snapchat/Discord/TikTok/Reddit etc.

I’m not being prudish though, this isn’t like any song you would find in the charts, it’s really obscene.

There may be reasons why IP doesn't want to interact with parents. Parents may be happy tp let their kids run feral on social a media so won't give a fuck.

Schools regularly cover internet safety so may flag an opportunity to remind all kids.

There is always the slim although not impossible chance this other child is under safeguarding with school anyway and this would be important within a bigger picture

Yr6 is way too young for WhatsApp, which is your responsibility.

Is the content extremely harmful/illegal or just too old?

Huge difference. Don't think you should report to school unless genuinely harmful. If it is an age-inappropriate music video that could be shown on mainstream media, my view is that's not reportable to school.

Of course report if illegal content.

I'd report to school. Schools generally are interested if kids are sharing inappropriate content.
The tide seems to be changing on smartphone use lately, certainly on mumsnet, a few years ago most kids I know had smartphones and whatsapp by this stage of Year 6.
Good that you were monitoring it, OP.

I would let the school know but reporting it to the police or social services is way over the top. Unfortunately things like this happen if children are allowed to have smart phones and access to applications like WhatsApp at such young ages.