Dear Parent’s and Carers,
As the Christmas holidays are nearly upon us I thought it may help to have an online safety update.
As a school we have also been made aware that some of our pupils are watching inappropriate content on YouTube. It is important to remember that age settings have been made to keep children safe from seeing unsuitable and upsetting content. I have included some information to help parents with setting up kids You Tube so that your child is only viewing age appropriate film clips.
What and who is Jeffy?
Jeffy the puppet is a popular character from the Super Mario Logan universe of YouTube channels. The channels and videos have been around for over 10 years and are nothing new. The video content features popular plush toys from the Super Mario universe along with other plush toys, dolls and puppets acting out a variety of stories.
These stories are often rude, offensive and bizarre in nature. The humour is very similar to what you would see in the popular TV adult cartoon show Family Guy or the movie Ted. The content in the videos feature a lot of toilet humour, use very explicit and offensive language which is often sexual in nature. The humour is often racist in content and uses a lot of racial stereotypes for some of its other characters.
Some of the videos feature rude songs that are often repeated by children and young people. The Channel is aimed at adults and it states on its homepage that the content is for a mature audience. In 2018 the people behind the channel added age restrictions to its videos to try to prevent children from watching them. Jeffy who was introduced to the channel around 2016 is portrayed as a character with learning difficulties who often acts very inappropriately using offensive and sexually explicit language. He is easily recognisable as he always wears a blue helmet, a nappy outside his pants and normally has a pencil shoved up his nose.
Despite being targeted towards adults Jeffy has been a very popular character with children and young people for a long while now. You can even buy Jeffy dolls and t-shirts on Amazon and many other retail stores and despite the adult content in the videos the t-shirts sizes start from age 5 and up.
Over the years, stories about Jeffy and the negative influence he can have on children have popped up in national and local newspapers across the world and despite this his popularity has grown. His video channel on YouTube has over 6 million followers from around the world. Jeffy’s most popular video has over 40 million views. Jeffy is not going to go away anytime soon in fact Jeffy the movie is currently being made which will only lead to a further increase in popularity.
I hope you find this information useful in making you aware of inappropriate content online and see the need to monitor your child’s access online closely. Also, see the attached PDF guide to YouTube Kids.
I hope you enjoy a peaceful Christmas holiday,
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs Houghton
Online Safety Co-ordinator