Zoom’s appeal is that, even using the free version of the service, it gives people the capacity to bring together a large number of participants in one meeting. Only the host is required to set up an account with Zoom, and the access information can be easily distributed to people who may want to join the meeting.

Zoom’s Privacy Policy states that “Zoom does not knowingly allow children under the age of 16 to sign up for their own accounts”, and when creating an account users are asked for their date of birth, but no other age verification is used.

However, users are not required to set up a Zoom account in order to participate in a Zoom meeting.

Reminder: In Ireland, the Digital Age of Consent is set at 16, meaning that online service providers must have parental consent to process the data of children below the age of 16.

As with any app or platform, it is important to understand how it works, and the potential risks of using it. Privacy and security concerns have been raised about the service, including ‘Zoom Bombing’, which are incidents where meetings are accessed by strangers to cause disruption. Zoom Bombing is often as a result of the meeting link being shared on a public forum, where it can be accessed easily by anyone. 

To mitigate against these risks, spend time becoming familiar with the privacy and moderation controls that a host can use for their meeting. 

Note: Zoom has been making regular updates to address issues with the platform and, if you are using the service, bear in mind that settings security, and privacy changes may be introduced over time.

 

•  Meeting privacy

It is important to ensure that private information is not shared to a public place, and to consider who will receive details about a meeting, and how that information is shared. Zoom meetings now have password access enabled by default. This means that people who want to join the meeting need to enter the Meeting ID and password in order to gain access. However, the meeting url can be used by participants to join the meeting without a password. 

 

• Waiting rooms

   The Waiting Room function is a virtual holding area that prevents participants from joining a meeting until you accept them, and give them access. This setting is enabled by default for Zoom meetings.

  

 

• Lock meeting 

   Locking a meeting that has started restricts new users from joining even if they have the Meeting ID and password.

 

• Screen Share controls

   To prevent participants taking random control of the screen, hosts can restrict permissions using the control panel. This can be adjusted both before the meeting, and during it. 

 

•  Moderation and managing participants

   Zoom offers some moderation tools, including giving hosts the ability to disable participant’s video, mute participants, turn off file-transfer, and disable group or private chat