Digital Technologies

So interesting to hear that Australia will be a test case for other countries in the implementation of age restrictions for accessing social media.  Apparently more details are coming out in the next week or two on exactly how this will be done, but it seems some face recognition as well as ID collection are amongst those being touted as programs they have been developing.

 Last newsletter I mentioned  the eSafety Commission website and PD available for parents.  Following this I received an email from Belinda Bele who attended an online session.  I thought her insight into what she got out of it as a parent of a Year 6 student would give everyone an understanding how it can help all parents at the moment.

Hi Nadine

Just wanted to let you know that I joined one of the eSafety webinars today - 'Understanding and using parental controls to help protect your child online'. 

It was a great webinar: gave a good overview of the variety of parental controls - not just tech based controls -  and directions on how to find more information. And I think they had a very balanced approach: taking into account how important tech is for kids vs parents needs and concerns. For a 40 minute sessions, they covered a lot of topics. 

The key take-away for me was the importance of 'active oversight' by parents when kids are online: tech controls can only do so much and there are so many ways to get around them, so being with your kids whilst they are online and teaching them how to stay safe and be responsible is key. And how important it is for parents to understand the apps, games etc that their kids are interacting with: understanding the game play, how they can interact with others, how to set controls and limits, incentives in games etc. 

They also touched a bit on transitions: how to manage ending tech time without the dramas, and the importance of being realistic about ending e.g. kids will not want to end a game if they are almost at the next level simply because their time is up. 

The eSafety site is also a great resource I find - loads of helpful information on there. I really like the eSafety guide for info on all the different apps, games, sites etc. 

They have some other webinars coming up in September and October - https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars.

Cheers Belinda

Thank you Belinda, I hope that helps other parents make a decision to access the website and the online sessions.

Any questions or help please email me at 

nadine.jones@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au

Nadine Jones

E Learning Leader 

STEM Teacher