Student Safety Online – Passwords & Phishing: What Every Family Should Know 

Student Safety – Passwords & Phishing: What Every Family Should Know 

As students spend more time online for schoolwork, gaming, and socializing, their accounts can become a target for scams and password theft. Here's what parents and carers should know — and how to help keep your child's accounts safe. 

Why these matters  Schools, businesses, and online platforms are increasingly targeted by cybercriminals looking to access personal data through weak or reused passwords. While we take strong measures to protect our systems, password security is a shared responsibility — and a few good habits at home go a long way in keeping your child's accounts safe. 

What is phishing?  Phishing is when a scammer sends a fake email, message, or pop-up pretending to be someone trustworthy — like a teacher, a game platform, or even the school — to trick your child into clicking a link or entering their password. The eSafety Commissioner notes that if an app, email or text asks for lots of personal information or login details, it's likely a scam. eSafety Commissioner 

Helping your child build safe password habits  A few simple conversations at home can make a big difference. According to eSafety: 

• Don't share passwords. Almost 1 in 5 teenagers have shared the password to their social media accounts with a friend, family member, boyfriend or girlfriend — make sure your child knows this isn't safe, even with people they trust. 
• Use a passphrase, not just a password. Security experts recommend using a passphrase — a combination of words that's easy to remember but hard to guess, rather than a short, complex password.  
• Use different passwords for different accounts, especially keeping school logins separate from gaming and social media. 
• Keep passwords private, even from friends — avoid writing passwords down or storing them where others could find them.  
• Pause before clicking any link asking your child to "log in" or "verify" an account. 

If you think your child's account has been compromised  Acting quickly limits the damage: 

1. Change the password immediately, where possible. 
2. Contact our IT Helpdesk at it.helpdesk@brightonsc.vic.edu.auso we can investigate and help secure the school account. 
3. If you're unsure whether an account has been part of a data breach, you can check services like haveibeenpwned.com. eSafety Commissioner 

Useful resources 

• eSafety Commissioner – Protecting your personal information 
• eSafety Commissioner – Security and privacy for your device 
• Victorian Government – Cyber incident impacting Victorian government schools 

Online safety works best as a partnership between home and school. By having these conversations early and often, you're helping your child build habits that will protect them well beyond their school years. 

BSC IT Department