Cyber Safety Project

Dear Students, Parents and Carers, 

This week all students from years 7-10 had Sam from the Cyber Safety Project come and talk to us about some of the realities of students sharing information online. One of the things he spoke about was that students can unconsciously share information about themselves without even realising; 

On example provided was a student who shared that he was at Waverly Basketball Stadium every week, by the time he posted the third photo a stranger told him he would be there next week to meet him, when he asked him not to he was asked for an explicit image. 

Good questions to ask your child are, Who would you talk to if something happened online ? What would you do if you received a nude ? Do you know what the eSafety commissioner is ? 

Sam gave some great tips which can be discussed with students; 

1. On Snap Chat, advice was to use ‘ghost mode’ 
2. On your phone check Location settings and check which apps you share your location on, switch to ‘Never’ for as many apps as possible 
3. Don’t accept messages from people you don’t know – this option appears before you open the message 
4. Talk to an adult as soon as you get worried, the sooner the better !
5. Don’t post photos in your school or sports uniform 
6. Don’t engage with strangers 
7. Talk to your kids about Sextortion and Image Based Abuse 

Sam talked about ‘sextortion’ where young people can have a stranger blackmail them in exchange for money or explicit images. Sam explained that 90% of sextortion impacts kids 9-13 years old. We can no longer think, it wont happen to me. This approach does not keep our young people safe. 

Two links all Parents should read are;  

Sextortion (sexual extortion) scams | Your safety | Victoria Police

Young People | eSafety Commissioner

Wellbeing is always available for any student is worried about online safety