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Things for your child to look for
Cyberbullying in WhatsApp does occur, as in all social media apps. Your child needs to know that if they receive any unkind or unpleasant comments, they need to take a screenshot and speak to their trusted adult. Children should be made aware of the WhatsApp ‘disappearing message’ function that means messages will vanish seven days after being sent. This means any evidence of cyberbullying may vanish from the chat thread - ideal for cyberbullies!
Children should be wary of accepting messages or calls from people they don’t know offline and should remember that anyone can easily make a fake account on this app, so may not be who they say they are. If they do not recognise the name or number they are best not open a message but to delete it straight away.
Explain to children about the use of location features. These can be useful for children to share their location with relatives or friends, but should be used sparingly; they should only have these turned on for as long as they need to.