Reports of online scares or challenges encouraging harmful or suicidal behaviours can be alarming and confusing. Follow the link to find out how you can speak to your child about scares and challenges, and how to respond if they have seen one.

Scams centred on exploiting coronavirus have become prevalent in recent months. Everything from Government grants, furlough payments, requests for refund of overpayments to mortgage holidays are being targeted by scammers utilising more sophisticated methods.

Sharing, or threatening to share, intimate images without consent is a crime that can come with a five year prison sentence.

Please find below the latest scam bulletin. Click to read on.

New website launched

For up to date information on scams visit SIC Trading Standards facebook page.

Issued from Police Scotland - The ability to detect a fictitious company and business transaction in a period of high demand becomes more challenging, particularly where businesses are operating with a skeleton or remote workforce. Many businesses are establishing new supply chains for products, particularly personal protective equipment (PPE) and buying from companies they have not dealt with before. This provides fraudsters an opportunity to exploit the situation: high demand for and the urgency with which companies want to procure goods. Those conducting this type of fraud will often target individuals/companies, knowing that they are facing these challenges.

Please read on to see some of the latest scams.

Two new Parent Info articles explore how parents and carers can support their child's mental health, and highlight things they can do to manage the wellbeing challenges of family life under lockdown.

Read on for the latest scams

Its Everyone’s job to keep children , young people and adults safe from harm and abuse. Here is a  link to a basic protection training  course that is recommended for everyone, but especially for colleagues working in the voluntary sector or with sports and activity groups. The course  will help you to recognise abuse, know what to do and where to get help and advice if you need it. You can print out a certificate for doing the course.

Which? is launching a free scam alert service to warn consumers about the latest fraud attempts and give advice about how they can protect themselves, as criminals exploit the coronavirus outbreak to unleash a new range of scams. With more than £1.2 billion lost to scammers in 2019, fraud has become one of the most prevalent crimes in the UK, which often results in devastating consequences for victims. In recent weeks, scammers have rushed to exploit the widespread fear and confusion caused by the pandemic.

Launched today is a new resource for Health & Social Care staff to support women at risk of gender based violence. The stay at home messaging which is a large part of our fight against COVID 19 will pose a challenge in particular for women at risk of gender based violence (GBV) including domestic abuse. 1 in 4 women may experience domestic abuse & this may increase during COVID pandemic.

The Internet Watch Foundation warns that, with schools being forced to shut, there is an increased risk of children being groomed and coerced online.

Over the coming weeks, children will be spending more time online to play, create, learn and connect. So it’s important to know how to keep them safe. That’s why Net Aware is here, to provide you with simple, practical advice.

Shetland Domestic Abuse Partnership, Shetland Rape Crisis and Shetland Women’s Aid would like to alert members of the community to the increased risk of domestic abuse and sexual violence during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Trading Standards are aware of a variety of scams associated with the coronavirus pandemic – it is important that everyone continues to remain vigilant and alert for any and all attempts by criminals to use the current circumstances as an opportunity to make money out of people’s difficulties and concerns. Locally, they are aware of an ongoing scam within Shetland which includes the promotion of ‘medical machines’ with claims that these can detect and/or cure various illnesses including coronavirus. “We are working on this in conjunction with other enforcement partners,” says David Marsh, Shetland Islands Council’s Trading Standards Team Leader, “and have received valuable assistance from people across the wider Shetland community.”

Our office is closed due to COVID-19 but can still be contacted and staff are continuing to provide support and advice:-

Please feel free to download these posters and circulate.

With the closure of schools, nurseries and other services during the current coronavirus pandemic, Child Protection Committees Scotland is urging everyone to keep their eyes and ears open for children and vulnerable adults who may be at risk during this time.

As more businesses encourage their staff to start working from home the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched new guidance to help prepare your workforce. Home working brings its own cybersecurity challenges that organisations must manage including possibly setting up new accounts, using new video teleconferencing facilities and document sharing.

A new Disability Hate Crime campaign has been launched this week to encourage both victims and bystanders to report hate crime to the police. One in five people in Scotland are registered as having a disability, yet this category of hate crime accounts for only four per cent of reports to Police Scotland, and there is strong evidence to suggest this type of offence is significantly under reported. This campaign has been designed to encourage people to come forward, to speak up and refuse to tolerate this kind of behaviour.

Shetland Public Protection Committee is proud to be involved in the second national Adult Protection Day on Thursday 20th February 2020. Thirteen years after the implementation of the Adult Support and Protection Act in Scotland, local partners say great progress has been made in Shetland. Tam Baillie is Convener of Shetland Public Protection Committee said: “Adult harm can take many forms, from physical, psychological and sexual abuse to financial exploitation and neglect, affecting those who can’t look after or stand up for themselves through personal circumstances, disability, age, illness or infirmity.

The Upstream Project was set up to enable adults and communities in Scotland prevent child sexual abuse. We believe that preventing child sexual abuse is all our responsibility and this depends on changing the thinking and behaviour of adults. It aims to be the "one stop" resource for anyone who wants to know more about the prevention of child sexual abuse and how they can contribute and help. The Upstream web resource was launched the 4th December 2019 at Norton Park Conference Centre in Edinburgh and was launched by Maree Todd, MSP, Minister for Children & Young People. For contact details and site read on.

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year, excitable children and time to relax with family and friends. And of course, there are new toys to play with. With a huge increase in sales of devices (around 13 million people receive smartphones for Christmas each year) it is important to ensure that you and your children are safe when playing with new kit. To help, we've set out a few top tips to help keep your household safe online over the holidays

A series of events and exhibitions are planned between 25th November (International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women) and 10th December (International Human Rights Day) as part of a global campaign aimed at highlighting the link between gender based violence and human rights. The Shetland Domestic Abuse Partnership (SDAP) brings together organisations supporting those who are at risk of, or who are experiencing, domestic or sexual violence and abuse. These include Shetland Women’s Aid and Shetland Rape Crisis, along with Shetland Islands Council, NHS Shetland, Police Scotland and Hjaltland Housing Association. This year, the 16 Days will be marked with a series of public talks, exhibitions and training events. The 16 Days also includes significant dates such as International Human Rights Defenders Day (29th November) and World Aids Day (1st December.) You can find more information here https://www.safershetland.com/training-and-events

Shetland Islands Council is one of 7 local authorities in Scotland taking part in piloting 'Equally Safe at Work', an employer accreditation programme which aims to support employers to improve their employment practice to advance gender equality at work, and prevent violence against women.

The National Confidential Forum is hearing from people all over Scotland and beyond, who are sharing their Scottish institutional childcare experiences. Being heard and having experiences acknowledged has been a powerful experience for individuals. The Forum have been listening to various experiences relating to care, some have been positive with individuals stating various good elements. However we have also heard about physical and sexual abuse in care, separation from siblings, children being used as domestic servants, not receiving information about puberty and adolescence and food being used as punishment. We have explored themes such as powerlessness and the longterm impact of care experiences on people’s life outcomes. We ensure that learning from those who have experienced care in the past contributes to making a difference to children in care in Scotland in the future.

Everyone in Shetland is being encouraged to keep their eyes open for children at risk during the school holidays. As Shetland schools prepare to ring the bell for the end of term on Friday 5th July, a national child protection organisation is urging everyone to be extra observant to help protect potentially vulnerable children while schools are out for summer break.

Do you work with children and young people under 5 to the age of 18? Do you work with older adults or those with a disability or mental health problem? If you are providing services to children, young people or more vulnerable adults it’s good practice to have up-to-date policies and procedures that your group, staff and volunteers can follow. This helps to protect adults who could be at risk of harm, children and young people while they are accessing your services. To keep up to date, visit https://www.safershetland.com/ which is regularly updated with a range of information on child and adult protection procedures.

Shetland Women's Aid are hosting a seminar with Dr Marsha Scott, CEO of Scottish Women's Aid on 4 June 2019 in the Auditorium at Shetland Museum and Archives. the focus of the seminar is coercive control, the new Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and how this will impact on local responses to Women, Children and Young People affected by domestic abuse.

On 1st April a new domestic abuse law came into force in Scotland. This law creates a new offence covering psychological harm, as well as physical harm.

Shetland Protection Committee is supporting the #Stop it Now Child Sexual Abuse Campaign today. Last year Police Scotland delivered a CSE Child Sexual Abuse Campaign, entitled #notmyfriend. The campaign was deemed a huge success with a sevenfold increase in the number of individuals being directed to the Stop It Now! website page. (607 sessions three months prior to campaign rising to 4385 sessions three months after campaign launch). Social media directed traffic also seen a staggering increase from 8 clicks within a three months period before the campaign, rising to 2946 in the three months period after the launch date. Following the campaign launch the stopitnow/Scotland URL generated 76.5 per cent of all social media traffic to the Stop It Now! website. Building on from this success, on Monday 18th March 2019, Police Scotland will launch a new Online Child Sexual Abuse campaign, focusing on “grooming”. The campaign will be entitled “#StopitNow” and will run for four weeks. Unlike previous campaigns, this campaign will solely target perpetrators of online child grooming.

Shetland’s Adult Protection Committee (APC) has this week presented its biennial report to NHS Shetland, outlining the work of the Committee to help keep adults at risk in Shetland safe. The report was presented to the NHS Shetland Clinical Care and Professional Governance Committee on 12th February, and follows the earlier submission of the biennial report and business plan to the Scottish Government on 31st October 2018

National Care Day is on February 15th this year the flag will be raised on townhall at 8am. The flag was designed with and celebrates Shetland’s care experienced children and young people. The raising of the flag on the Town Hall is to celebrate Care Day. Care Day is the world’s biggest celebration of children and young people with care experience. Care experience includes children and young people who are or were cared for by parents or other family members with the support of social workers; by foster carers; or children and young people from children’s homes and residential units.

For this year’s Safer Internet Day, the focus is on adults’ online behaviour, and how it can go on to affect the behaviour of children and young people. Shetland’s Mobile Phone and Internet Safety Committee (which works under the local Child Protection committee) runs events throughout the year, including internet safety sessions in schools delivered by Peer Educators; ‘Virtually Safe Virtually Sound’ youth conferences in Shetland’s Junior High Schools; parent involvement evenings; and Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) training.