Safety first: winning team’s prescription for improving WhatsApp
As the Government prepares to implement its ban on social media for under-16s in the spring, the winning team in a QE Futures careers challenge that focused on WhatsApp made online safety their top priority.
The workshop in the Shearly Hall, which was run by WhatsApp owner, Meta, challenged teams to analyse user survey data and then set out their priorities and their recommendations for improving the app.
Team Fantastic Four identified safety as a key priority, particularly for younger users, proposing that Meta should prioritise this, with clearer and more accessible safety controls for users.
Assistant Head Robert Hyland (Destinations and Progress), who heads the QE Futures programme, said: “This workshop was a great example of how careers education can inspire pupils by getting them to apply their skills to highly topical real-world challenges, while at the same time giving them valuable insight into their possible future careers.
“I thank Harry Davison [Head of Marketing Science UK, Benelux, Nordics and Turkey] at Meta, for facilitating this activity, and my congratulations go to the Fantastic Four.”
The four – Sadat Shak, Thanish Thatapa Reddy, Yingjun Ouyang, and Vivaan Pasula – brought complementary skills to the task. Yingjun and Sadat took on the roles of data analysts and presenters, while Vivaan and Thanish focused on the creative design of their PowerPoint presentation.
In their conclusions, they placed safety first, ahead of ‘fun’ as the second priority and AI as the third. One of their key conclusions was: “WhatsApp should not measure improvement only by the number of features it launches. It should measure whether people feel more in control.”
Their presentation combined clear graphs and tables with engaging visuals, demonstrating impressive analytical, creative and teamwork skills. Their systematic and creative approach impressed the judges. It also earned the team the opportunity to present their findings online later to a panel of Meta staff.
Thanish said the project helped him understand “what it feels like to be a data analyst and what I can do in the future”, while Sadat said he could include the achievement on his university application when the time comes.
QE Futures seeks to build core employability skills over pupils’ seven-year journey at the School. Partnering with industry, higher education institutions, and entrepreneurs allows for boys to develop and apply these skills in a real-world context, providing inspiring shared experiences.