From the Assistant Principal...

Online Safety:

This week we have had students across several grades concerned with the appearance of 'Momo" on their devices.  Momo is a phenomenon that began last year and, by all accounts, hasn't popped up on feeds from Google since April 2018.  Unfortunately, there has been talk on Facebook recently about this character, and it has become of interest to students.  

I spoke to several grades during the week about this.  I did some research and discovered that this image had been taken from a sculpture that had been created (innocently) by a Japanese artist and it was named 'Mother bird'.  I explained to the children that someone had stolen this image and made it into something that it was never meant to be and that the artist was so distressed about what had happened that he had destroyed his sculpture.  

Please talk to your children about this if they are worried, it is possible to find a picture online of the sculpture with the artist in the picture, and this might 'demystify' it for students and make them see the image for what it is...a piece of artwork.

Also, please remember that, under the terms of use, students under the age of 13 years should not have their own Social Media pages/apps. Please see https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent/staying-safe/social-networking/is-there-an-age-limit-for-kids-on-social-media