Digital Safety at St Roch's

In this ever changing digital world, we take digital safety very serious and need to prepare our students, your children for the future.

“The smarter their Digital World becomes,

the safer we need to make it”. (Linewize 2025)

Social Media Age Restrictions – Important Changes for Families

From 10 December 2025, new national regulations will require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to deactivate existing accounts and prevent new accounts for children under 16 years of age. This applies to platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, Reddit, Twitch, X, and others listed by eSafety. Children can still view public content (for example, watching YouTube without logging in), but they will no longer be able to hold personal accounts on these platforms.

These changes aim to delay young people’s exposure to online risks and give them more time to develop digital literacy, resilience and healthy online habits. Families may wish to help children back up any content they want to keep, such as photos, chat histories or videos, before the changes come into effect.

The attached eSmart Parent Resource provides clear information about how age checks will work, what platforms are affected, and practical tips for supporting children during this transition. We encourage all families to take a moment to read through it and discuss the changes at home.

Inform & Empower

With Australia’s new social media restrictions coming into effect on December 10, we know many schools and families will be looking for guidance. To support our school community, Marty and Carly McGauran, from Inform and Empower have prepared a letter for parents and carers.

eSafety Parents & Carers Webinars

National Child Protection Week was (7–13 September), and this year’s theme is Shifting Conversation to Action.  We hope you were able to begin conversations with your children at home on this important issue.

Inform & Empower Incursions

We will continue to work with Inform and Empower in 2026. They will deliver age appropriate Cyber Safety lessons to all students from Prep - Year 6 throughout 2026.

Linewize

We know how important your child's online safety is. St Roch's has teamed up with Linewize to offer you parental controls powered by the Qustodio Parent App—the world's leading parental control tool—for free. With Qustodio, you can supervise your child's online activities on their school-managed device outside of school hours. This ensures that you have peace of mind knowing your child is safe and secure in today’s digital world, both in and out of school.

We are dedicated to your child’s online safety, in and out of the classroom. By partnering with Linewize, we’ve taken steps to address the challenges that come with our students engaging in the digital space. We’re excited to offer you tools (powered by Qustodio, the world’s leading provider of parental controls) to help you to take an active role in supporting your child’s digital development.

Linewize already helps us protect your child’s digital experience while they’re at school. Now, with these parental control tools, you can extend that protection to your home—at no cost to your family. These tools are designed to give you greater visibility into your child’s online activity and empower you to set healthy boundaries and routines that fit your family’s needs.

Take some time to explore the following link to support your children's online safety:

https://strochs.onlinesafetyhub.com.au/

With Qustodio, you will be able to:

Ensure your child stays focused on homework by disabling distracting apps and games during study time.
Give your child the freedom to explore online, safely by blocking inappropriate websites, apps, games and content.
Help your child get the right amount of sleep by scheduling screen-free time in the evening.

And more! Visit our school’s Online Safety Hub to explore all of Qustodio's features and how these can help you navigate the various digital milestones and online parenting challenges.

We’re thrilled to offer these tools as part of our ongoing commitment to your child’s online safety and wellbeing. Stay tuned for more updates! With the support of a strong parent-school partnership, we can create a safer, more empowering online environment for our students.

We strongly encourage all our families to partner with us in this important school initiative, so that together we can give the children in our care the best chance of thriving in the digital world.

Need assistance?

If you need help, visit Qustodio Resources for guidance on how to get the support you need, with resources tailored to your specific situation.

Please contact Angie Mastoras should you have any questions regarding this initiative.