Connected Schools Worship

Last Thursday, our Year 4, 5 and 6 children attended the annual Connected Schools Worship at Endeavour College.

A huge thank you to our brave performers who helped share the powerful message: Excellence is shown when we learn from our mistakes. Aafia, Amali, Oscar and Thea courageously took to the stage to perform a wonderful skit, skillfully written by Mr Mayer.

Prisha, Andrhea, Amali and Mary led the schools in energetic song actions, rehearsed with Mr Huxtable and the Chapel Band. Elise and Maluk also took part in Endeavour’s message by volunteering in a reenactment of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.

We are so proud of all our performers and grateful to their teachers for supporting them to shine in front of such a large audience. It was also fantastic to see all our Year 4–6 children actively participating in worship and enjoying morning tea alongside friends from Endeavour College, Good Shepherd and Golden Grove Lutheran School.

Roblox concerns

Today I wanted to share some information about an online game that many children around Australia enjoy and that a number of St Paul children play at home.

Warning: This section contains information that may cause some distress and concern for readers.

Roblox is a very popular game that can be played on iPads, computers and various gaming consoles.

As a school, and as a parent myself, I have grave concerns around the safety of this game for our children and have tried to summarise my concerns below in case it is of benefit to you as members of our school community.

The thing is, Roblox isn't a game itself. It is a platform that contains games created by other users.

These games are called 'experiences' and have names like 'Bed Wars', 'Grow a garden' generally fit into one of the following categories:

Role-playing and simulation such as caring for pets, living and working in a virtual city, or just finding other players to chat with in a virtual world.
Party where users play social games with others such as ‘tag’ and ‘hide and seek’.
Obbies (obstacle courses) which test players’ parkour skills as they jump and climb through obstacles.
Adventure where users solve puzzles, explore lands, navigate mazes or complete quests.
First person shooter (FPS) and fighting with the aim to eliminate other players.

One of the reasons Roblox is popular is that other Roblox users can create games which has led to a wide variety of games on the platform. This is, however, also one of the most significant risks of Roblox. As anyone can make a game or 'experience' for Roblox, there is less moderation of these for appropriateness or safety. The creators of games set the maturity level of these games themselves, which can mean that inappropriate content is accessed by younger children. There have been a number of complaints raised with the ACCC and similar bodies overseas of young children, including younger than 10 years old, being exposed to sexualised content, pornography, violent and offensive content despite having age settings in place.

Another popular element of Roblox is the chat function. As a default, this is set to on and must be restricted manually by users or parents. Children enjoy this feature because it lets them talk to their friends whilst gaming. However, it also opens up opportunities for communication with other users, including adults, regardless of the user settings. There are a number of articles online that reference users' experiences and the findings of ongoing investigations into the platform that are graphic and include examples of grooming and the sharing of adult and inappropriate content via the Roblox chat function.

There are also significant concerns around the use of microtransactions and the use of gambling-like tactics that can lead to children experiencing addiction when playing this game (and others).

Gaming has a number of benefits and can be a wonderful experience for our children. Your choices in your home are your own, however, I felt it was important to pass the above information on so that you are able to make decisions around your child's online experience with all the available information. I have 4 children aged 11 to 3 and none of them are able to play Roblox due to these concerns. However, I also know as a parent how challenging that decision is, especially when children's friends are all playing the same game and chatting in the evening whilst on the game. It is hard as a child to understand parents' decisions and it is hard to make a choice that could lead to your child feeling more isolated.

For your family, allowing your child to play Roblox may be the right choice. I would encourage you, if this is the right choice for your family, to have an open conversation with your child about online safety, online communication and also to look at some of the articles online, such as https://cybersafetyproject.com/a-parents-guide-to-roblox/ for advice about how to set some restrictions in place so that your child is protected as much as possible.

Thank you for all that you do for your child at home and for your support of our actions at school.

If you have any questions about your child's learning and social connection, please speak with your child's classroom teacher initially but also know that our Nest team is available if you have further queries. If you would like to speak to me about online safety or Roblox, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at gbuxton@stpaulba.sa.edu.au.

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