Wellbeing

Kids and Cyber Safety

The online world is  an increasingly complex challenge for parents as they try and monitor, guide and understand all that their kids are engaged with or exposed to.

It is becoming an increasing concern for me as I sit with children from all age groups at BPS and hear about their online activity. Whether its games, social media, YouTube, video's etc, I am hearing many stories about questionable if not inappropriate access to online material and doing so for extended periods of time. Often it's accessed accidentally or naively, however, the possible consequences are the same.  I've listened to kids share about having nightmares from watching 'horror' games or shows, talking online with people they don't know, can't see and who claim to be their age. I have heard kids tell me that they are online late at night, sometimes 11pm or even later, these same kids are then struggling to sleep, get up for school and focus during the day.

As parents we need to be focused and proactive about what our kids are up to online. You may be reading this thinking, "my child is fine, they aren't looking at anything inappropriate, they aren't having too much screen time". I want to encourage each of us to be brave enough to honestly examine what our kids are up to online. At some recent training I attended about cyber safety the presenter explained it like this; would you take your child to a playground where there are a lot of strangers, drop them off on their own and tell them they can play whatever they want and talk to who ever they want for several hours and then come back and pick them up, hoping that they will be safe! Of course none of us would do that, however, by allowing our kids unsupervised online access with no boundaries, education or accountability we are not being wise. 

Parenthood is not about being popular, it's about sometimes making the hard choices to set healthy boundaries and have uncomfortable, open conversations with our kids in order to protect and educate them. It's important to create a safe place for our kids to talk with us about online activity or what they are experiencing. Creating boundaries with our kids, such as no internet in bedrooms, parents having access to devices whenever they choose in order to check what is being accessed. Structured times for using devices and turning them off at least an hour before bedtime, installing parental controls on devices. It is never too late to implement boundaries and accountability, remember you are the adult and you are responsible to set the standard. Maybe we also need to examine our personal use of devices. How long am I on a device, what am I engaging with online. Am I spending more time on a device than actively engaging with my family, am I setting a good example in relation to internet use.

There are many resources available for parents to help them create a safe cyber experience for their kids.  Can I strongly encourage each parent within the BPS community to reflect on the internet use in your home and consider ways to talk with your kids about cyber safety. 

The e Safety Commissioner has set up an excellent website to assist parents, I recommend taking a look to help you navigate setting up cyber safety within your home.

Please feel free to reach out if you need support with this.

Blessings, Lisa Osborne

lisa.osborne@education.vic.gov.au