Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you are all safe and well.

The Education Safeguarding Team in Leeds has had lots of questions and concerns raised about a new App for the children's phones /tablets called House Party.

I would advise you to ask you children to show you their phone and to check for an App with this logo:

The House Party App is from the same company that created Fortnite.

It allows children to live-stream, screenshot and receive or  send unwanted messages.

As with all Apps that live-stream and allow you to send photos, there is a risk that children may be tricked or pressured into sending sexualised imagery of themselves which can put them at risk.
When children are in a ‘room’ chatting to their friends, a link to this room can also be shared publicly – so that anyone with the link can also access the 'room'.  Once, in the 'room' an   uninvited guest can easily ‘friend’ any of the children taking part in the live stream.
 As a parent or carer, if your child is using this App you should check that the privacy setting are set to their highest level to ensure that ‘Rooms’ are locked to uninvited guests.
 To make matters worse, it appears that when a genuine friend is invited into a 'room', everyone that they are friends with can also join a ‘room’ without being invited.  This makes the chances of cyber-bully or trolling even higher.

Here is a web link with more information on:
https://www.ineqe.com/2020/03/30/houseparty-how-safe-is-the-app-taking-the-uk-by-storm/

I hope this helps you to keep your children safe.
Martin Lumb