What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Hoop

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Dr Claire Sutherland Online safety consultant, educator and researcher
Guide

This week's free online safety guide focuses on Hoop. It highlights a number of risks such as grooming, visible location and no age verification system.

A free online safety guide on Hoop.

Hoop is a social networking app that syncs with Snapchat to help users build their community of friends. It works along similar principles to Tinder: swiping left or right will reject or accept potential contacts, making new connections in the process. When two users accept each other, they can then communicate via Snapchat. There is no chat function on Hoop itself: video and audio calls, messaging and image sharing all take place through Snapchat. When a user adds a new Hoop contact, they are essentially sharing their personal information from Snapchat.

In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as grooming, visible location and no age verification system.