Wellbeing - Whole School
Keeping Our Young People Safe: Emerging Trends for Parents and Carers
Last week, I attended a forum at Strathfield Girls High School with NSW Police, the eSafety Commissioner and youth safety experts to better understand emerging issues affecting young people.
A key message from the forum was the importance of strong partnerships between schools and families in helping students make safe and responsible choices both online and in the community.
What parents should be aware of:
Youth crime trends: Police reported an increase in youth-related incidents across our local communities, with younger adolescents becoming involved in risk-taking behaviours at earlier ages. This highlights the importance of supervision, clear boundaries and ongoing conversations about decision-making and personal responsibility.
Online safety and artificial intelligence: The rapid growth of AI technologies is creating new challenges for young people. Concerns include apps which allow for image manipulation, deepfakes, AI chat companions, appearance-rating apps and online platforms that connect young people with strangers around the world.
Student wellbeing: Experts highlighted that many young people continue to experience feelings of loneliness and social disconnection despite being highly connected online. Positive relationships cannot be replaced.
E-bikes and e-scooters: Parents/carers are reminded to ensure that any e-bike or e-scooter used by their child complies with current NSW regulations. Safety, appropriate supervision and responsible use are essential. As our communication has demonstrated, students should not have e-bikes or e-scooters on College grounds or be riding them to school.
As an SPC community through our year meetings, pastoral care lessons, in classrooms and assemblies, we remain committed to educating students about making safe, respectful and responsible choices. We encourage you, as parents/carers, to continue engaging in regular conversations with your sons about online activity, peer influences, personal safety and wellbeing.
Alexandros Sinadinos
Director of Middle School
The Rise of Omoggle
Omoggle is a livestream platform built around appearance ranking. A byproduct of what I call MANipulation (commonly known as Manosphere). Users enter what the culture calls “face battles.” There is anonymous video chat, AI facial analysis, attractiveness scoring, and the broader infrastructure of looksmaxxing, the belief that human worth can be optimised through appearance alone. The respectable end of it is skincare and fitness. The darker end is body dysmorphia, misogyny, racialised looks hierarchies, humiliation culture, and a quiet dependency on the validation of strangers. The platform claims to be eighteen and over. It is also what is now called an AI slop app, built cheaply on mass-produced AI-generated content and designed to scale faster than any regulator can catch it. Source: Adapted from “Miss, Have You Heard of Omoggle?” by Kirra Pendergast
Robert Simpson
Director of Senior School