CGThis anti-bullying week we want to remind everyone that #OneKindWord applies to everyone and that means teachers too. One of our key strengths on the Professionals Online Safety Helpline is our relationship with industry, meaning that when a piece of content is on a site and it shouldn’t be, we can often contact a real person at that site and have it removed. But that is only really one element of “solving” a case.
Increasingly teachers and schools are reporting fake accounts that have been set up by students or people in the wider community. Often these accounts are set-up in jest but often become sinister and pose a reputational risk for the school/individual. In the last 2 weeks we have helped to remove hundreds of accounts on TikTok that have been created in the school/establishment’s likeness and then used to spread rumours, gossip and false allegations
Getting the accounts removed is great; it takes the power away from the poster and hopefully also sends a message that the behaviour is not tolerated. But, getting one account removed does not prevent the person behind it from creating another.
So what can teachers do?
- Any school reporting content on TikTok should report it through the Professionals Online Safety Helpline.
Whodunnit?!
Nearly every time we have one of these accounts removed we are also asked “can you find out who set up the account?” Unfortunately the answer is always no.
That question makes total sense, in order to do some preventative work you need to know who to do that with, but what you are actually asking is, “Can you ask TikTok to breach data protection laws and defy the privacy of its users in order to give me an IP address/ email of a nuisance account?”
In some situations TikTok and industry in general, will give that information out, but only in very strict circumstances. The only people that can request that information are the police/law enforcement.
RIPAs
In order for the police to even request that information, they have to submit something called a RIPA with their request. A RIPA is, in layman terms, an online version of a search warrant – A RIPA needs to be signed off by a high ranking officer and the paperwork is so complex it can take an officer days, or even weeks, to complete (especially if they are already over-stretched).
With all this to consider, you can hopefully understand that the police are very unlikely to go to these lengths in the case of school bullying and reputational risk.
Even if they do decide to go down this route, there are a few problems with what a RIPA might return. The only useful user information that TikTok holds on a user is their:
- name,
- email address and
- associated IP addresses.
Of those, the user could have lied about their name, and used an obscure email address, so the only rich data is the IP address. Now imagine going through all that paperwork and red-tape only to get an IP address that could only lead you back to a shared computer in a library. Not very helpful.
So, we can assume then that the police are not going to go to these lengths for a nuisance account, because even if they did, it could be absolutely pointless.
Carry Out Your Own Investigation
Here’s the thing, you need to get your Miss Marple on! As a teacher, or even just a member of your school community, you know your students better than the police. You know the friendship groups that have formed, you know which friendship groups seem to have recently had a ruction. You know which two kids are joined at the hip, who walks home with who, who waits with who in the lunch line, who’s had a fall out and who’s made up.
If you are able to, have a dig around the page, look who follows it, who the page is following and who interacts with the posts. You will soon start to spot some peer groups, and perhaps there is one person missing? If not, this will at least give you a better understanding of which students are aware of the account, and you can then ask them about it in person, conducting interviews to find out more.
While you may never be able to definitively say who it is or back that up with hard evidence, you will at least know who to target with some extra online safety education/awareness. Also, these accounts have a habit of ‘disappearing’ once students catch on that staff know about them and are actively investigating.
People may feel a sense of security hiding behind an anonymous account but the truth is that in this world you are rarely, truly anonymous. People get traced using the dark web, impersonations are uncovered and catfishing only lasts for so long, as my mum always said, “in the end the truth will always out “.
More Sources of Support
Read more about RIPA; https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/contents/enacted
*Schools in England, have been given by the DFE more powers than the police, to be used with caution and with a lot of caveats, you could utilise this power in order to help in your investigation; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation
Find out more about the story here: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-59264238
Contact POSH for further advice and support: https://saferinternet.org.uk/professionals-online-safety-helpline
If you’re a student who has witnessed this happening in your school and want to report it, visit Report Harmful Content: https://reportharmfulcontent.com/
*This only applies to schools in England and not applicable to Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland
