WELLBEING:
POLICE VISIT TO OUR SCHOOL:
Wednesday, 24th June:
This week we were visited by Leading Senior Constable Tania Peters from Victoria Police talking about online safety and sextortion. These can be difficult topics to talk about at home, especially when our teens often have better online knowledge and are more ‘tech savvy’ than we as their parents or significant adults are.
Tania presented the ThinkUKnow program to all students in all year levels.
ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), delivered nationally in partnership with police and industry partners to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
The program incorporates up-to-date research, real case studies and examples from reports made to the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
The program is pro-technology and addresses topics including self-generated child abuse material, online grooming, sexual extortion, and importantly encourages help seeking behaviour.
The program is a partnership with the AFP, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Datacom and Microsoft Australia, and in collaboration with all State and Territory police and Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.
What does it cover?
The program aims to ‘debunk’ some myths around online safety and alert students to the ‘red flags’ when interacting with people in the online world.
Online child sex offenders are always older males
FALSE
Fact
Online child sex offenders can be any age, gender and from any background.
It can also be difficult to verify people are who they say they are online.
Always trust your instincts and report suspicious or inappropriate behaviour towards children.
Online child sex offenders are always ‘online strangers’
FALSE
Fact
It’s sometimes assumed that children are targeted by ‘online strangers’. This isn’t always the case.
Offenders can be someone a child or young person knows, for example, someone they work with, a family member, a friend or relative.
Always trust your instincts and report suspicious or inappropriate behaviour towards children.
Only females are at risk of online child sexual exploitation
FALSE
Fact
Anyone under the age of 18 can be a victim of online child sexual exploitation.
The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation receives large numbers of reports involving both male and female victims.
Teaching children and young people critical thinking skills can help them to identify suspicious behaviour and take action.
Parental controls and privacy settings are enough to keep children and young people safe online
FALSE
Fact
Multiple strategies are recommended for online child safety.
It’s sometimes assumed that technical actions such as parental controls and filters alone are enough to keep children and young people safe, but sometimes more is needed.
There is no ‘quick fix’ when it comes to online safety or protecting your child from harm, and it’s important to use a range of prevention strategies.
A complete approach includes using both technology settings as well as open conversations with children and young people about what they do online.
We all need to be vigilant as our students spend a large amount of time online and through games like Roblox, where they interact with people from all over the world. Not everyone is who they say they are. Those who look to make contact with our young people for the wrong reason are very skilled at what they do – the interactions start out innocently and build trust – then the requests for more personal information begins. Young people, especially those who may be vulnerable in some way, connect very quickly. We need to teach our young people to look for the red flags and encourage them to speak up before they get in too deep. There is always someone they can talk to and we have to remove the embarrassment and shame about speaking up.
If you as a parent/guardian would like more information, please check out the website for ThinkUKnow or email/call Sharon Champion at KTHS. We need to work together to keep our young people safe.
