CSPS Digital Wellbeing

As technology and online environments continue to change rapidly, we know this space can feel confusing and overwhelming for families. With recent national and state announcements about social media use and digital devices, it’s an important moment for our community to come together around how we support our children online.

To help guide this, we are introducing CSPS Digital Wellbeing — a school initiative that brings together the programs, experts and supports we offer to help students and families make safe, healthy and confident decisions in the digital world.

CSPS Digital Wellbeing will feature as one of several important focus areas for our school next year as we strengthen education for students, offer practical support for families, and stay aligned with upcoming changes from the Department of Education.

The recent announcements, both at a national and state level, regarding digital usage and access for young people has included:

• The ‘Online Safety Amendment’ (social media minimum age), to be rolled out nationally from 10th December 2025.
• Changes to ‘Bring Your Own Device’ programs and use of digital devices in primary schools, to be rolled out across the state from 2027. 

In 2026, we will extend our relationship with ‘The Cyber Safety Project’, ensuring that all students at our school are being educated about safe, responsible and appropriate use of digital devices. 

At a School Council level, we have discussed further supports at a community level that we will look to roll out next year. This will include:

• A community session on Wednesday 6th May with Susan McLean, Australia’s foremost expert in cyber safety, as well as a member of Victorian Police for 27 years. 
• An introduction to the ‘Wait Mate’ initiative, a movement empowering parents to ‘hit pause’ on smartphones until at least high school. 

The Department of Education provided further template text to share with school communities regarding the social media ban. I have attached this at the bottom of this article.

This is also a great time to remind our community that phones are not allowed at any Victorian Government School. At our school and like at all schools, any student with a phone must hand it over to their classroom teacher at 9:00am and it will be returned at 3:30pm. 

Smart watches also fall into this category and must be turned onto ‘school mode’, ‘flight mode’ or equivalent if a student would like to continue wearing it across the school day. 

We thank you for your support and look forward to working with you in this area in the future.  

How to support your child under 16 with the new social media age restrictions

From 10 December 2025, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 will require social media platforms to:

· prevent children and young people under 16 from having a social media account

· deactivate or freeze existing accounts held by people under 16.

Delaying access to social media protects the health and wellbeing of young people and gives them extra time to build real world connections and digital literacy skills.

The responsibility will be on the social media platforms, not parents, carers, children or schools, to implement these new restrictions.

Most popular social media platforms will be age restricted. These include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and YouTube.

Messaging services and online games, as well as apps and platforms that support health and education, can still be used.

How to help under 16s prepare for the change

Parents and carers play an important role in supporting their children to be safe online.

To help get under 16s ready for the social media minimum age requirements, you can go to the eSafety website to learn more about the social media age restrictions and find tips on how to talk about social media age restrictions with young people.

To keep up to date about the new social media age restrictions, visit the eSafety website and subscribe to their newsletter.