Student Engagement & Wellbeing News
Online Safety – Information For Parents and Carers
Parents and carers play a key role in guiding their children as they navigate the online world and begin to learn through exploration, play and social interaction.
Parents and carers can prepare their primary school aged child to be safe on social media even if they don’t use it yet. You can do this by building good online habits and staying informed about online safety.
You can learn more how to help your child begin their online journey on the eSafety Commissioner’s website.
You can also learn about the range of social media, games, apps and sites in the eSafety Guide, including what all the apps are, their minimum age requirements, how to protect personal information and how to report content within the apps themselves.
Supporting positive and safe online experiences for your child
There are a range of resources available to support you to support your child to have a safe experience online.
Þ The eSafety Commissioner’s website provides:
• Encourage your child to ask for help
• Parental controls- How to use parental controls and other tools to maximise the online safety of your home.
• how to have hard conversations about tricky topics like cyberbullying or personal subjects.
• webinars to give parents/carers the knowledge, skills and tools to support safe online experiences including supporting primary school children to understand consent and online boundaries and how to support your child with online gaming.
• family friendly videos and advice sheets in multiple languages to support your family stay safe online, getting started with social media, safer online gaming and getting help when your child is bullied online.
• eSafetykids page with child friendly information you can share with your child including what to do when someone is being mean online, being safe online, sharing photos and personal information online.
Other places for support:
Bully Stoppers provides dedicated resources on cybersafety and cyberbullying for primary aged students and a dedicated resource page for parents. You can also access cyberbullying advice sheets for concerned adults through Bully Stoppers.
Alannah and Madeline Foundation provides DigiTalk, an online safety hub for parents. It includes resources on topics such as becoming a screen smart family, navigating online bullying, and choosing, protecting and engaging with games for children.
Raising Children Network provides resources for parents of primary school children on topics like healthy screen time, digital family life, digital play and learning and online safety.