Cybersafety Incursion

Cybersafety & Security Incursion 

On June 11th and 12th, officers from Victoria Police, Andy and Toni-Mae, presented the primary school curriculum for grades one to six, reflecting the recognition of increased stranger danger online. They have presented this to almost 50,000 students in the Darebin area.

For Grades 1 and 2 the focus was on knowing what to keep as private information, how to deal with pop up conversations, and asking a trusted adult for help when communication doesn’t feel right. Below are some student reflections on what they learnt:

• Make up a name for your name on the device. ~ Leo, 1C
• If anyone asks you any questions like where do you live, go to a trusted adult. ~ Thomas, 1C
• Ask an adult if you can use a device. ~ Frankie, 2D
• Don’t use you real name or personal info on your password and turn off chat. ~  Oliver, 2D
• I changed my username on the Nintendo Switch from my name to the name of an alien. ~ Anonymous (obviously), 2D

For Grades 3 and 4 the focus was on staying safe online, asking a trusted adult for help and keeping personal information safe. Below are some quotes from the students:

• Sometimes people can scam you because they want money and other times when you are playing games, they want to take a photo of you so they can sell it. ~ Stella, 3C
• If a random message person asks you, “What’s your address? What school do you go to?” don’t tell them. ~ Ayden, 3C
• The police made an account with AI in only a few seconds, that’s why you have to be careful. ~ Seb, 4C
• Don’t post photos of yourself. ~ Jojo, 4C

For Grade 5 and 6 the focus was on learning about staying safe online, keeping information private (including images), knowing people online vs offline and asking trusted adults for help.

• Not everything is what it seems. ~ Aubrey, 5B
• People on the dark web can trade your photo for money. ~ Elsa, 5B
• I learnt that you have to be really, really careful with what you post and what you look at. People can create an image in 5 seconds on AI. ~ Elodie, 6A
• Don’t put your own name in your username. ~ Navin, 6C

Foundation students met police officer Toni-Mae, learning about the role of police officers, using 000 – and having an up-close look at a police car.

• She (Toni-Mae) told us to look when you’re going across the road. ~ Lachy, FA

Back in the Classroom

Teachers were positive about the learning involved in the workshops and continued these powerful and important conversations back in the classrooms. Many of us spent lunch time changing our passwords…

Keeping Your Child Safe Online

FPS was offered the opportunity for parents to attend an online meeting to learn about about stranger danger. Paul has included a link to the presentation in his principal’s report.

Some interesting (and scary) information that came from the presentation was:

• In the US, 10% of primary aged students are sharing intimate images of themselves online.
• Australia is #3 in the world for online grooming.
• Last year there were 70,000 incidents in Australia of sexual extortion of young people.
• Three primary school per day are notifying the authorities regarding sexual abuse/their students accessing pornography.

There were also a couple of case studies of young people who have been affected by sexual exploitation.

What can you do?

• Always supervise your children when they are on devices – they should not be using them behind closed doors.
• Know what apps/platforms your children are accessing.
• Make sure the chat function on games (where this is an option) is switched off, or that your children are only chatting to people they actually know.

Access the ThinkUKnow website at  for lots of information on building safe online habits.

~ Cathy Turner, Disability Inclusion & Wellbeing Teacher