Cybersafety Project
Wellbeing Information Sessions for Parents: CYBER SAFETY PROJECT
This year, St Mary’s offers parents numerous opportunities to engage in well-being information sessions to support their children best. In Term 1, our art teacher and a member of our wellbeing team, Daliah McLoughney, ran a session for families' ‘Art and Wellbeing Family Night’. More recently, Georgina Manning, Director of Peaceful Kids, led a seminar, ‘5 Secrets to Build Confidence and Resilience’.
To support our community to assist in fostering positive and safe digital environments in the home, we now offer all parents access to four online webinars through the Cyber Safety Project.
The first webinar, Plan, Prevent, Protect, was made available to parents via Seesaw yesterday. In the first webinar, the Cyber Safety Project team shared proactive and practical steps, tools and advice for keeping the whole family safe online.
Key Takeaways from Webinar 1:
It’s important to see the benefits of technology and to begin equipping children with digital literacy skills early. Technology is and will continue to be a large part of their lives.
In this session, the Cyber Safety Team focuses on the risk of child exploitation. The Cybersafety Project team discuss “capping”, the process of perpetrators assuming the identity of another child to build a relationship and gradually groom children. The webinar also discusses what to do to prevent things from happening and what to do when things go wrong.
I was interested in the segment that explored the scenario “Hey, can I please use?”
Often, we have heard things about specific games and apps, and our gut instinct might be to say no. The webinar explores how a focus on developing a relationship with children and ensuring your children feel safe and comfortable to discuss technology with their parents. Saying no all the time will build a wall or barrier between you and your children.
You might not say yes, but not yet and find out more about the tool and application. Not yet tells children there might be more we need to know before we make a decision. The Cybersafety team outlines a Plan, Prevent and Protect approach. The webinar goes into detail. I have briefly summarised these steps below:
Plan: Research, Build awareness, and set boundaries if we determine this is safe for our children.
Prevent: Make use of device, game or app settings.
Protect: Set up for success through prevention strategies and ongoing conversations with our children about the online world and how they could manage different challenges, and where they can go for help.
Parents will be invited to join future webinars live. However, parents will also be able to access all four webinars on demand.
Other topics discussed in this webinar series are outlined below:
Webinar 2: Safety on the Socials
Deep dive into the Big 5 social media apps and uncover the risks and harms across lesser-known video, chat and music platforms. Discover simple strategies that will help prepare your child to be safe and responsible social media users.
Platforms covered: YouTube, TikTok, BeReal, Instagram, Snapchat, Discord
Webinar 3: Gaming and Your Family
Discover one of the major players in the online world… Gaming. Deep dive into what makes gaming appealing to young people and game developers' strategies to keep players hooked. Learn about the benefits of gaming and uncover the risks and harms of overuse.
Webinar 4: Digital Balance & Wellbeing
Digital wellbeing is mindful and authentic engagement with the digital environment that balances the physical, mental, and social well-being of yourself and others. We could all do with a digital wellbeing check-up from time to time. In this webinar, the Cyber Safety Project Team discuss key digital challenges and emerging wellbeing trends and shares simple strategies to help your family manage digital pressures.
Please contact me at neddy@smhampton.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions regarding these webinars.
Nathan Eddy
Deputy Principal/Student Wellbeing Leader
neddy@smhampton.catholic.edu.au